Stephanie Rodriguez

IST Alum

Center

Artificial Intelligence

Projects

Digital Cognition & Democracy Initiative

Areas of Expertise

Stephanie Rodriguez served as a visiting advisor to the Institute for Security and Technology’s Digital Cognition and Democracy Initiative.

Content

Reasoning: How digital technologies influence decision making and judgment

This report provides a working definition of reasoning, narrowing the scope of the discussion to judgment and decision making. We identify three aspects of digital technology that exert significant impacts on reasoning: user experience design, gamification, and search engines. Examples include social media platforms, gamified platforms like Robinhood, and search engines like Google and Wikipedia. Key findings include:

cognition, DCDI, decision-making, democracy, gamification, Geopolitics of Technology, judgment, reasoning, search engines, user experience design

October 27, 2022

Attention: How digital technologies influence what we notice, what we focus on, and how we learn

This report examines the impact that technology has on the cognitive function of attention. It provides a working definition of attention within a cognitive science context, including the distinction between overt and covert attention. It summarizes findings that elucidate how attention is affected by the passive and active consumption of technology.

attention, cognition, critical thinking, DCDI, democracy, emotions, gamification, Geopolitics of Technology, memory, reasoning

October 27, 2022

Memory: How digital technologies influence cognitive information storage

Memory is foundational to cognition. It enables individuals to operate with certain assumptions about truth based on prior validated beliefs. Memory informs individual decision making, reasoning, and problem solving. There are also significant societal implications rooted in memory function. Individual memories, collectively and cumulatively, inform the development of “national memory,” which in turn influences “the construction of a democratic culture and collective identity.” This report provides a working definition of memory and focuses especially on long-term memory.

bias, cognition, DCDI, democracy, Geopolitics of Technology, GPS effect, manipulation, memory, trust

October 27, 2022