title: Augmenting Autobiographical Memory: An Approach Based on Cognitive Psychology

authors: Schweer, Andrea

subjects: autobiographical memory

abstract: This thesis investigates how an interactive software system can support a person in remembering their past experiences and information related to these experiences. It proposes design recommendations for augmented autobiographical memory systems derived from Cognitive Psychology research into human memory – a perspective missing from prior work. Based on these recommendations, a conceptual design of an augmented autobiographical memory system is developed that aims to support users in retrieving cues and factual information related to experiences as well as in reconstructing those experiences. The retrieval aspects of this design are operationalised in an interactive software system called the Digital Parrot. Three important factors in the design and implementation are the context of an experience, semantic information about items in the system and associations between items. Two user studies evaluated the design and implementation of the Digital Parrot. The first study focused on the system's usability. It showed that the participants could use the Digital Parrot to accurately answer questions about an example memory data set and revealed a number of usability issues in the Digital Parrot's user interface. The second study embodied a novel approach to evaluating systems of this type and tested how an improved version of the Digital Parrot supported the participants in remembering experiences after an extended time period of two years. The study found that the Digital Parrot allowed the participants to answer questions about their own past experiences more completely and more correctly than unaided memory and that it allowed them to answer questions for which the participants' established strategies to counteract memory failures were likely to be unsuccessful. In the studies, associations between items were the most helpful factor for accessing memory-related information. The inclusion of semantic information was found to be promising especially in combination with textual search. Context was used to access information by the participants in both studies less often than expected, which suggests the need for further research. Identifying how to appropriately augment autobiographical memory is an important goal given the increasing volume of information to which users are exposed. This thesis contributes to achievement of this goal by stating the problem in Cognitive Psychology terms and by making design recommendations for augmented autobiographical memory systems. The recommendations are confirmed by the design and implementation of such a system and by empirical evaluations using an evaluation method appropriate for the field.

text: Augmenting Autobiographical Memory: An Approach Based on Cognitive Psychology This thesis investigates how an interactive software system can support a person in remembering their past experiences and information related to these experiences. It proposes design recommendations for augmented autobiographical memory systems derived from Cognitive Psychology research into human memory – a perspective missing from prior work. Based on these recommendations, a conceptual design of an augmented autobiographical memory system is developed that aims to support users in retrieving cues and factual information related to experiences as well as in reconstructing those experiences. The retrieval aspects of this design are operationalised in an interactive software system called the Digital Parrot. Three important factors in the design and implementation are the context of an experience, semantic information about items in the system and associations between items. Two user studies evaluated the design and implementation of the Digital Parrot. The first study focused on the system's usability. It showed that the participants could use the Digital Parrot to accurately answer questions about an example memory data set and revealed a number of usability issues in the Digital Parrot's user interface. The second study embodied a novel approach to evaluating systems of this type and tested how an improved version of the Digital Parrot supported the participants in remembering experiences after an extended time period of two years. The study found that the Digital Parrot allowed the participants to answer questions about their own past experiences more completely and more correctly than unaided memory and that it allowed them to answer questions for which the participants' established strategies to counteract memory failures were likely to be unsuccessful. In the studies, associations between items were the most helpful factor for accessing memory-related information. The inclusion of semantic information was found to be promising especially in combination with textual search. Context was used to access information by the participants in both studies less often than expected, which suggests the need for further research. Identifying how to appropriately augment autobiographical memory is an important goal given the increasing volume of information to which users are exposed. This thesis contributes to achievement of this goal by stating the problem in Cognitive Psychology terms and by making design recommendations for augmented autobiographical memory systems. The recommendations are confirmed by the design and implementation of such a system and by empirical evaluations using an evaluation method appropriate for the field.

year: 2011

title: Measurement of natural convection heat transfer in an attic shaped enclosure

authors: Anderson, Timothy Nicholas

subjects: solar

abstract: Heat transfer by natural convection in triangular enclosures is an area of significant importance in applications such as the design of greenhouses, attics and solar water heaters. However, given its significance to these areas it has not been widely examined. In this study, the natural convection heat transfer coefficients for air in an attic shaped enclosure were determined for Grashof Numbers over the range of 10⁷ to 10⁹. It was found that the measured heat transfer coefficients could be predicted to within 5% by Ridouane and Campo’ (2005) equation (Eqn. 1) for natural convection in a triangular enclosure previously developed for Grashof Numbers in the range 10⁵ and 10⁶. 
Nu= 0.286A⁻⁰•²⁸⁶ Gr¼    (1)
As such, it is suggested that this equation may be suitable for predicting the natural convection heat transfer coefficients in full scale attic enclosures.

text: Measurement of natural convection heat transfer in an attic shaped enclosure Heat transfer by natural convection in triangular enclosures is an area of significant importance in applications such as the design of greenhouses, attics and solar water heaters. However, given its significance to these areas it has not been widely examined. In this study, the natural convection heat transfer coefficients for air in an attic shaped enclosure were determined for Grashof Numbers over the range of 10⁷ to 10⁹. It was found that the measured heat transfer coefficients could be predicted to within 5% by Ridouane and Campo’ (2005) equation (Eqn. 1) for natural convection in a triangular enclosure previously developed for Grashof Numbers in the range 10⁵ and 10⁶. 
Nu= 0.286A⁻⁰•²⁸⁶ Gr¼    (1)
As such, it is suggested that this equation may be suitable for predicting the natural convection heat transfer coefficients in full scale attic enclosures.

year: 2008

title: Maori land in Hauraki

authors: Hart, Philip

abstract: Imagining the Hauraki Peninsula to contain payable goldfields and knowing that land to the south of Thames had great agricultural potential, Pakeha were determined to acquire it, and were frustrated by what was considered to be ‘Maori intransigence’. For their part, Maori landowners were justifiably concerned about losing their land, and hindered and delayed opening it to settlement for as long as possible. A major difficulty for officials seeking to acquire land was how to determine boundaries between different blocks and how to identify the true owners when there were rival claims put forward by hapu and individuals. Land purchase agents used a variety of means to get blocks through the land court and then to individualize the title, notably the controversial ‘raihana’ policy, which benefited some landowners at the expense of others. The expensive legal process involved often forced those who had proved their ownership to sell land to pay for their success, a success which resulted in grantees treating the land as their personal property rather than tribal property. Some Pakeha as well as many Maori protested at the unfair process; even James Mackay, the most effective practitioner of raihana, came to lament his success and its consequences for the younger generation of Maori (he blamed the system, not himself). When far too late, it was urged that land should have been leased rather than sold and that proceeds from sales should not have been squandered.
Instead of having commissions of enquiry, as some suggested, the land court system meant that judges determined ownership on the evidence presented to them, even though some owners were not present nor had their interests represented. Sometimes the evidence was false, as was admitted by some witnesses when their perjury was exposed. And in the case of the Ohinemuri district, for which the records survive, when the land was sold to the Crown some Maori received too much money, some too little, and some missed out altogether. The struggles to open Ohinemuri to miners and settlers is examined in detail, revealing that some rangatira expected economic gain and that Te Hira’s party, who opposed the opening, were undermined by some of Te Hira’s followers: being ‘Hauhau’, they refused to take money from the Crown but instead took raihana, meaning goods which were charged against their land in a way they did not understand. Nor did anyone fully understand the system apart from Mackay, whose policy was eventually repudiated by the politicians who had encouraged it previously. Not all land was lost, but because the government did not assist landowners with advice and finance until well into the twentieth century what land that was retained could not be developed adequately.

text: Maori land in Hauraki Imagining the Hauraki Peninsula to contain payable goldfields and knowing that land to the south of Thames had great agricultural potential, Pakeha were determined to acquire it, and were frustrated by what was considered to be ‘Maori intransigence’. For their part, Maori landowners were justifiably concerned about losing their land, and hindered and delayed opening it to settlement for as long as possible. A major difficulty for officials seeking to acquire land was how to determine boundaries between different blocks and how to identify the true owners when there were rival claims put forward by hapu and individuals. Land purchase agents used a variety of means to get blocks through the land court and then to individualize the title, notably the controversial ‘raihana’ policy, which benefited some landowners at the expense of others. The expensive legal process involved often forced those who had proved their ownership to sell land to pay for their success, a success which resulted in grantees treating the land as their personal property rather than tribal property. Some Pakeha as well as many Maori protested at the unfair process; even James Mackay, the most effective practitioner of raihana, came to lament his success and its consequences for the younger generation of Maori (he blamed the system, not himself). When far too late, it was urged that land should have been leased rather than sold and that proceeds from sales should not have been squandered.
Instead of having commissions of enquiry, as some suggested, the land court system meant that judges determined ownership on the evidence presented to them, even though some owners were not present nor had their interests represented. Sometimes the evidence was false, as was admitted by some witnesses when their perjury was exposed. And in the case of the Ohinemuri district, for which the records survive, when the land was sold to the Crown some Maori received too much money, some too little, and some missed out altogether. The struggles to open Ohinemuri to miners and settlers is examined in detail, revealing that some rangatira expected economic gain and that Te Hira’s party, who opposed the opening, were undermined by some of Te Hira’s followers: being ‘Hauhau’, they refused to take money from the Crown but instead took raihana, meaning goods which were charged against their land in a way they did not understand. Nor did anyone fully understand the system apart from Mackay, whose policy was eventually repudiated by the politicians who had encouraged it previously. Not all land was lost, but because the government did not assist landowners with advice and finance until well into the twentieth century what land that was retained could not be developed adequately.

year: 2016