In this presentation I provide an overview of approximately a decade of work on the study of collaboration between people and between people and machines.  The foundation for this is a passion for problem solving and understanding how it is that humans understand their world and each other.  I review a body of work that spans not only basic and applied research, but also policy and practice in the area of cognition in complex contexts.  This includes domains such as team science, collaborative problem solving, and human-robot interaction, as well as social cognitive processes when interacting with other minds.  The overarching goal is to understand how humans can better collaborate with each other and with technology to help them address the most pressing scientific and societal challenges facing the world.

Abstract

Dr. Stephen M. Fiore is Director, Cognitive Sciences Laboratory, and Professor with the University of Central Florida’s Cognitive Sciences Program in the Department of Philosophy and School of Modeling, Simulation, and Training. He maintains a multidisciplinary research interest that incorporates aspects of the cognitive, social, organizational, and computational sciences in the investigation of learning and performance in individuals and teams. His primary area of research is the interdisciplinary study of complex collaborative cognition and the understanding of how humans interact socially and with technology.  In 2018, Dr. Fiore was nominated to DARPA’s Information Sciences and Technology (ISAT) Study Group to help the DoD examine future areas of technological development potentially influencing national security.  He has been a visiting scholar for the study of shared and extended cognition at École Normale Supérieure de Lyon in Lyon, France (2010) and he was a member of the expert panel for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s 2015 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) which focused on collaborative problem-solving skills. He has contributed to working groups for the National Academies of Sciences in understanding and measuring “21st Century Skills” and was a committee member of their “Science of Team Science” consensus study, as well as a member of the National Assessment of Educational Progress report on “Collaborative Problem Solving”. He is recipient of UCF’s Luminary Award (2019), as recognition for his work having a significant impact on the world, and UCF’s Reach for the Stars Award (2014), as recognition for bringing international prominence to the university.  As Principal Investigator and Co-Principal Investigator he has helped to secure and manage approximately $25 million in research funding. He is co-author of a book on “Accelerating Expertise” (2013) and is a co-editor of volumes on Shared Cognition (2012), Macrocognition in Teams (2008), Distributed Training (2007), and Team Cognition (2004).  Dr. Fiore has also co-authored over 200 scholarly publications in the area of learning, memory, and problem solving on individuals and groups.