RESEARCH AREAS

Many of us have (and expect from others) near-constant access to information and communication technologies. This means that we have many options to use different aspects of technology to serve our daily goals. Yet, qualities of technology can influence our perceptions and behaviors in ways that are not obvious to the average person, and therefore people need some level of “media skill” to regulate their media use. My scientific research seeks to understand how aspects of media contribute to a person’s ability to monitor and regulate their media use.

how do affordances of digital media affect decisions about when and how to use technology?

Monitoring and regulating your media use starts with understand how different technologies operate and how those operations influence the way you think and behave. I draw from investigations of media selection and effect to understand how aspects of media influence a person’s perceptions and behaviors.

How do people self-assess the state of information “in their head” and out in the world (i.e., metacognitive monitoring) in a digital environment?

A media user can take advantage of the strategies and techniques made possible by technology to the extent that they are able to monitor the state of their knowledge. People generally have a faulty mental model about what they know, making them prone to misassessing and mismanaging their own learning. The problem is that aspects of technology make it MORE difficult to know what you know. My previous work demonstrates that characteristics of media technology such as speed of access (Hamilton & Qi, 2024), anthropomorphic cues (Hamilton, Ward, & Yao, 2024), degree of organization (Hamilton, McIntyre, & Hertel, 2016), and familiarity and ownership (Hamilton & Yao, 2018) impair metacognitive judgments. I build on research from cognitive psychology to identify aspects of media technology that influence the ability to make accurate judgments about what we know and what we don’t know (i.e., metacognition).

What contributes to a person's decisions about when and how to use technology?

A person’s understanding of media’s affect and their ability to monitor the state of their mind contribute to their decisions about when and how to use technology. A third component of my research investigates a person’s ability to regulate and adjust their cognitive processes, strategies, and behaviors. In cases where individuals do not understand technology’s affect and/or do not monitor their cognitive state, we can expect their decisions about when and how to use technology to be miscalibrated. This can have negative consequences for a person’s well-being, social connections, productivity, and a host of other communication outcomes