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Abstract
We live in an attention economy where human attention is harvested, commoditized, and traded as a scarce and valuable resource. Information and communication technologies (ICT) use an evolving branch of psychological research called behavior design to manipulate our attention and behavior. Consequences of this affect what we do with our time and also our capacity for reflection and self-awareness, which has lasting effects across our life and relationships. This dissertation looks to attention restoration theory (ART) and participatory design (PD) for help in addressing the harms created by the attention economy. ART is an empirically validated theory that addresses how attention can be depleted and also restored. PD gives us an experiential and democratic framing for helping people have a say in the technology that affects their lives. Using PD to co-design restorative environments may help us restore and protect our attention on both individual and collective levels. The work of this dissertation uses PD, visual elicitation, phenomenological interviews, and focus groups to explore (1) how the design process itself might be restorative, (2) how co-designers' behaviors with ICTs change in the process of designing for others, and (3) how institutions might play a systemic, scalable role in protecting our attention. Doing this will involve analyzing data collected in two undergraduate design classes that used PD to design restorative environments on the University of Washington’s campus, and translating that curriculum to a relevant and feasible offering for libraries for and with library practitioners.
Proposal Presentation
I presented (and passed!) this proposal on Jun 25, 2020 to an audience of Zoom attendees and my supervisory committee: David Levy , Dave Hendry , Cheryl Metoyer , and Jennifer Turns . You can watch a pre-recorded version of that presentation in the Youtube video below. As I mention in the video, I welcome your comments or questions at tench@uw.edu .
Bibliography
The following is a curated version of my dissertation proposal bibliography. Download all referenced citations here.
The Attention Economy
Davenport, T. H., & Beck, J. C. (2001). The Attention economy. Ubiquity, 2001(May), 1-es.
Eyal, N. (2014). Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products. Portfolio.
Ferster, C. B., & Skinner, B. F. (1957). Schedules of reinforcement. Appleton-Century-Crofts.
Fogg, B. J. (2002). Persuasive Technology: Using Computers to Change What We Think and Do (Interactive Technologies). Morgan Kaufmann.
Freed, R. (2018). The Tech Industry’s Psychological War on Kids – Richard Freed – Medium. [2019/1/24]. Retrieved 2020-05-18 from Medium .
Nelson-Field, K. (2020). The Attention Economy and How Media Works : Simple Truths for Marketers. Palgrave Macmillan US.
Odell, J. (2019). How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy. Melville House.
Simon, H., & Greenberger, M. (1971). Computers, communications and the public interest. Computers, communications, and the public interest. Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, 40-41.
Vallor, S. (2016). Technology and the Virtues: A Philosophical Guide to a Future Worth Wanting. Oxford University Press.
Williams, J. (2018). Stand Out of Our Light: Freedom and Resistance in the Attention Economy. Cambridge University Press.
Zuboff, S. (2019). The age of surveillance capitalism: The fight for a human future at the new frontier of power. Profile Books.
Attention Restoration Theory
Hartig, T. (2004). Restorative environments. Encyclopedia of applied psychology, 3, 273-279.
Hartig, T., Mang, M., & Evans, G. W. (1991). Restorative Effects of Natural Environment Experiences. Environmental Behavior, 23(1), 3-26.
Kaplan, R., & Kaplan, S. (1989). The Experience of Nature: A Psychological Perspective. CUP Archive.
Kaplan, S. (1995). The restorative benefits of nature: Toward an integrative framework. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 15(3), 169-182.
Kaplan, S. (2001). Meditation, Restoration, and the Management of Mental Fatigue. Environmental Behavior, 33(4), 480-506.
Kaplan, S., & Berman, M. G. (2010). Directed Attention as a Common Resource for Executive Functioning and Self Regulation. Perspectives on Psychological Science , 5(1), 43-57.
Ohly, H., White, M. P., Wheeler, B. W., Bethel, A., Ukoumunne, O. C., Nikolaou, V., & Garside, R. (2016). Attention Restoration Theory: A systematic review of the attention restoration potential of exposure to natural environments. Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health., 19(7), 305-343.
Stevenson, M. P., Schilhab, T., & Bentsen, P. (2018). Attention Restoration Theory II: a systematic review to clarify attention processes affected by exposure to natural environments. Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health., 1-42.
Contemplative Studies
Barbezat, D. P., & Bush, M. (2013). Contemplative Practices in Higher Education: Powerful Methods to Transform Teaching and Learning. Wiley.
Duerr, M. (2004). A Powerful Silence The Role of Meditation and Other Contemplative Practices In American Life and Work., 159.
Duerr, M., & Bergman, C. (2011). The Tree of Contemplative Practices. [2019/2/18] Retrieved from contemplativemind.org .
Kabat-Zinn, J. (2009). Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation In Everyday Life. Hachette Books.
Komjathy, L. (2017). Introducing Contemplative Studies. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Levy, D. M. (2016). Mindful Tech: How to Bring Balance to Our Digital Lives. Yale University Press.
Merton, T. (1965). Love and Living. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Participatory Design
Bødker, S., & Kyng, M. (2018). Participatory Design That Matters Facing the Big Issues. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, 25(1), 4:1-4:31.
Kaner, S. (2014). Facilitator’s guide to participatory decision making. John Wiley & Sons.
Mages, M. A., & Onafuwa, D. (2019). Opacity, Transition, and Design Research. Cuadernos del Centro de Estudios en Diseño y Comunicación No73, 19, 264-282.
Muller, M. J. (2009). Participatory Design: The Third Space in HCI. In (pp. 181-202). CRC Press.
Spinuzzi, C. (2005). The methodology of participatory design. Technical communication.
Spinuzzi, C. (2002). A Scandinavian challenge, a US response. In. New York, New York, USA: ACM Press.
Methods
Alase, A. (2017). The Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA): A Guide to a Good Qualitative Research Approach. International Journal of Education and Literacy Studies, 5(2), 9 19.
Band-Winterstein, T., Doron, I., & Naim, S. (2014). ‘I take them with me’–reflexivity in sensitive research. Reflective Practice, 15(4), 530-539.
Birt, L., Scott, S., Cavers, D., Campbell, C., & Walter, F. (2016). Member Checking: A Tool to Enhance Trustworthiness or Merely a Nod to Validation. Qual. Health Res., 26(13), 1802-1811.
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative research in psychology.
Carlson, J. A. (2010). Avoiding traps in member checking. Qualitative Report, 15(5), 1102-1113.
Creswell, J. W., & Miller, D. L. (2000). Determining validity in qualitative inquiry. Theory into practice, 39(3), 124-130.
Krueger, R. A. (2014). Focus groups: A practical guide for applied research. Sage publications.
Meyer, K., & Willis, R. (2019). Looking Back to Move Forward: The Value of Reflexive Journaling for Novice Researchers. Journal of Gerontological Social Work, 62(5), 578-585.
Nowell, L. S., Norris, J. M., White, D. E., & Moules, N. J. (2017). Thematic Analysis: Striving to Meet the Trustworthiness Criteria. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 16(1), 1609406917733847.
Seidman, I. (2006). Interviewing as qualitative research: A guide for researchers in education and the social sciences. Teachers college press.
Smith, J. A., Flowers, P., & Larkin, M. (2009). Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis: Theory, Method and Research. London: Sage. SAGE Publications Ltd.