Learning to Delete: Forgetting of Digital Objects as Collaborative Task of Human and AI

Third Party Funds Group - Sub project


Start date : 01.10.2019

End date : 30.09.2022

Extension date: 31.03.2023


Overall project details

Overall project

Lernen zu Löschen: Vergessen digitaler Objekte als Gemeinschaftsaufgabe von Mensch und KI

Project details

Short description

In the digital world of work, data can in principle be stored in unlimited quantities. Unlike human memory, external memory does not forget. Digital objects that have become irrelevant can hinder the search for information, delay decision-making processes, divert attention away from the actual task and thus impair work performance and well-being. In order to be able to work in a focused and goal-oriented way, forgetting processes in the joint cognitive system become increasingly important. People not only have to ignore irrelevant information and deliberately inhibt it in their memory, but also "forget" it in external memory by hiding, archiving or permanently deleting this information. This is where the cognitive companion Dare2Del comes into play, whose basic functions based on inductive logic programming (ILP) were developed in the first application period on the basis of cognitive and occupational psychology research on intentional forgetting in the working context (field 1 and 2 of the SPP). The goal of Dare2Del is to support employees in administration and production to regulate their digital knowledge by hiding and deleting irrelevant digital objects. Dare2Del is designed as an interactive, intelligent assistance system that adapts to users through incremental learning. In the first application period focus was on the need-based support of short-term forgetting processes by fading out irrelevant information; in the second application period the work focuses on the function of deletion. People often store too many irrelevant digital objects in an unstructured way, rarely delete them, often doing so only when outdated information interferes with the workflow. Deletion is accompanied by uncertainty and is often neglected in everyday working life. Consequently, the deletion recommendations of the forgetting information system Dare2Del should be designed transparently and comprehensible such that people actually deal with these decisions and that performance and stress level are positively influenced. This design task addresses work area 4 of the SPP. It is planed to empirically study which design features of the cognitive companion, which personal (e.g., ability to inhibit) and organizational conditions (e.g., social norms), do support employees in their decision making about which digital objects can be deleted. The companion system Dare2Del is to be extended by a component for the generation of different types of explanations. A collaborative learning approach will be developed, allowing users to mark portions of the generated statements that they do not accept which are then considered as constraints in incremental learning.

Scientific Abstract

In the digital world of work, data can in principle be stored in unlimited quantities. Unlike human memory, external memory does not forget. Digital objects that have become irrelevant can hinder the search for information, delay decision-making processes, divert attention away from the actual task and thus impair work performance and well-being. In order to be able to work in a focused and goal-oriented way, forgetting processes in the joint cognitive system become increasingly important. People not only have to ignore irrelevant information and deliberately inhibt it in their memory, but also "forget" it in external memory by hiding, archiving or permanently deleting this information. This is where the cognitive companion Dare2Del comes into play, whose basic functions based on inductive logic programming (ILP) were developed in the first application period on the basis of cognitive and occupational psychology research on intentional forgetting in the working context (field 1 and 2 of the SPP). The goal of Dare2Del is to support employees in administration and production to regulate their digital knowledge by hiding and deleting irrelevant digital objects. Dare2Del is designed as an interactive, intelligent assistance system that adapts to users through incremental learning. In the first application period focus was on the need-based support of short-term forgetting processes by fading out irrelevant information; in the second application period the work focuses on the function of deletion. People often store too many irrelevant digital objects in an unstructured way, rarely delete them, often doing so only when outdated information interferes with the workflow. Deletion is accompanied by uncertainty and is often neglected in everyday working life. Consequently, the deletion recommendations of the forgetting information system Dare2Del should be designed transparently and comprehensible such that people actually deal with these decisions and that performance and stress level are positively influenced. This design task addresses work area 4 of the SPP. It is planed to empirically study which design features of the cognitive companion, which personal (e.g., ability to inhibit) and organizational conditions (e.g., social norms), do support employees in their decision making about which digital objects can be deleted. The companion system Dare2Del is to be extended by a component for the generation of different types of explanations. A collaborative learning approach will be developed, allowing users to mark portions of the generated statements that they do not accept which are then considered as constraints in incremental learning.

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