Investigating the Impact of Cognitive Style and Coping in Engineering Design: Insights from Computational Modeling and Cognitive Experiments
Restricted (Penn State Only)
- Author:
- Radwan, Noriana
- Graduate Program:
- Industrial Engineering
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- May 01, 2023
- Committee Members:
- Steven Landry, Program Head/Chair
Kathryn Jablokow, Outside Unit & Field Member
Yiqi Zhang, Major Field Member
Steven Landry, Major Field Member
Christopher McComb, Special Member
Jessica Menold, Chair & Dissertation Advisor - Keywords:
- cognitive style
coping
engineering design
agent-based modeling
computational modeling
design
problem solving
collaboration
teams
robustness
cognitive gap
cognitive effort
cognition
engineering
organizational psychology
optimization
cognitive experiments
KABOOM
KAI - Abstract:
- The engineering design process is highly cognitive, where designers evaluate concepts and generate solutions to achieve goals. Engineering design centers problem solving, and this process can be challenging as design problems are often ill-structured and complex. Furthermore, this process is undertaken in both individuals and design teams. Thus, the cognitive processes underlying how designers solve problems have been studied extensively in the literature to understand the cognitive aspects and behavior that impacts individual and team design. Gaining an understanding of these cognitive processes is crucial to improve design methodologies. To this end, this dissertation leverages the cognitive style in accordance with Kirton’s Adaption–Innovation (A–I) theory, a perspective from which to study designers cognitive process based on their preferred problem-solving style. An individual’s cognitive style has significant impacts on the cognitive processes that constitute problem solving such as ideation, solution generation, search space exploration, and communication. Cognitive gaps that arise from differences in cognitive style may be hinder effective problem solving. Therefore, the research in this dissertation also sought to understand how coping behavior to remedy these gaps manifest during problem solving in various scenarios. This work used four studies to examine the relationships between cognitive style, cognitive gaps, and coping behavior on individual and team-based design outcomes. The first study utilized an agent-based model, KABOOM, to evaluate how cognitive style-based team composition and hierarchal structure impacts overall team performance and robustness. Results indicated that homogeneous teams are likely to perform better on average than heterogeneous teams, but heterogeneous teams are likely to be more robust. Furthermore, creating specialized sub-teams can significantly improve both robustness and median performance. The second study, a cognitive experiment, employed a think-aloud protocol during an individual design task where participants solved design problems with opposing frames to simulate person-problem cognitive gaps. This study demonstrated that the problem frame impacts the relative feasibility and paradigm-relatedness of design outcomes. Moreover, it provides insight into the design strategies used during possible instances of person-problem gaps. The third study expanded on the agent-based model used in the first study and introduced KABOOM+C to computationally model individual problem solving and coping with various agent cognitive styles and problem frame. The model results were aligned with the results from the cognitive study. The results from this study demonstrated that trends in A–I theory can be accurately modeled using KABOOM+C. Finally, the fourth study further expanded on KABOOM+C to incorporate coping effort and examine the subsequent effects of different levels of coping on dyad performance and robustness. Results shed light on how excess coping effort may be detrimental to team success, and different factors of coping intensity, duration and direction have significant impacts on team outcomes. Overall, the work in this dissertation examined the impact of cognitive style on the cognitive processes and outcomes relevant to problem solving and engineering design. Moreover, this work introduced the first agent-based model to computationally model cognitive gaps and coping in A–I theory. This work can help designers and educators understand how gaps due to differences in cognitive style may serve as a barrier to effective design and successful teamwork, thus facilitating enhanced design methodologies and informing optimal team formation.