The intelligent use of space
Abstract:
The objective of this essay is to provide the beginning of a principled classification of some of the ways space is intelligently used. Studies of planning have typically focused on the temporal ordering of action, leaving as unaddressed questions of where to lay down instruments, ingredients, work-in-progress, and the like. But, in having a body, we are spatially located creatures: we must always be facing some direction, have only certain objects in view, be within reach of certain others. How we manage the spatial arrangement of items around us is not an afterthought: it is an integral part of the way we think, plan, and behave. The proposed classification has three main categories: spatial arrangements that simplify choice; spatial arrangements that simplify perception; and spatial dynamics that simplify internal computation. The data for such a classification is drawn from videos of cooking, assembly and packing, everyday observations in supermarkets, workshops and playrooms, and experimental studies of subjects playing Tetris, the computer game. This study, therefore, focuses on interactive processes in the medium and short term: on how agents set up their workplace for particular tasks, and how they continuously manage that workplace.
Space is a resource:
… whether we are aware of it or not, we are constantly organizing and re-organizing our workplace to enhance performance. Space is a resource that must be managed, much like time, memory, and energy.
Embodiment:
The techniques we use, are not always obvious, nor universal. Some were taught to us, some naturally evolved as we improved our performance through practice, some are inevitable consequences of having the type of bodies, manipulators and sensors we have.
Assumptions in this paper:
- The agents we observe are experts, or near experts, at their tasks, despite these tasks often being everyday tasks.
- Experts regularly find that enough information is available locally to make choices without having to plan on-line, using conscious analytical processes.
- Experts help to ensure that they have enough information locally by partially jigging or informationally structuring the environment as they go along.
- The human environments of action we shall be examining, the equipment and surfaces that comprise each workspace, are pre-structured in important ways to help compensate for limitations in processing power and memory.
Summary:
| Capacity Improved | What has been Reduced | Mechanism |
|---|---|---|
| Recall | Probability of an error in prospective memory | Reminders |
| Visual search | 1) Time complextiy of search, 2) Descriptive complexity of environment, 3) Probability of error | Use known orderings such as chunks or alphabets |
| Perceptual acuity | 1) Granuality of perception, 2) Micro-categorization | Vernier effect |
| Reasoning | Time complexity of plaaning | Cue next action through a known ordering |
| Execution | Probability of capture error | Maximize cue separation |
Supersizing the mind 4장 중에서
- Spatial arrangements that simplify choice: such as laying out cooking ingredients in the order you will need them or putting your groceries in one bag and mine in another.
- Spatial arrangements that simplify perception: such as putting the washed mushrooms on the right of the chopping board and the unwashed ones on the left or the color green dominated jigsaw puzzle pieces in one pile and the red dominated ones in another.
- Spatial dynamics that simplify internal computation: such as repeatedly reordering the Scrabble pieces so as to prompt better recall of candidate words or the use of instruments such as slide rules, which transform arithmetical operations into perceptual alignment activities.