amy rae fox

Cognitive/Information/Learning Sciences · Research/Design

I study Human-Information Interaction.
At the intersection of cognitive, information, and learning sciences, I explore how humans create and appropriate tools for thinking. These cognitive technologies, (also called external representations) range from stunning interactive visualizations of data, simple charts and graphs, diagrams, systems of notation, to even the text on this screen.

I leverage what we know about human cognition to inform the design of tools for thinking, and study their everyday use to learn about human cognition.

I am presently working as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the MIT Visualization Group, jointly supported by a CSAIL METEOR Fellowship, and MIT School of Engineering Postdoctoral Fellowship for Engineering Excellence (PFPEE). 


Education

PhD in Cognitive Science  
University of California San Diego
advised by: Dr. James D. Hollan

MA in Interdisciplinary Studies — Cognitive Visualization
California State University at Chico
advised by: Drs. Wolfgang Schnotz, Neil Schwartz, Erica deVries

MSEd in Instructional Design*
* Master Sciences de L'éducation — specialité professionnelle ingénrie de la formation
Université Grenoble Alpes
advised by: Dr. Erica deVries

BSc in Computer Science
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill


Publications

Journals & Archival Conferences

Towards a Dynamic Multiscale Personalized Information Space: Beyond application and document centered views of information

Amy R. Fox, Philip Guo, Clemens Nylandsted Klokmose, Peter Dalsgaard, Arvind Satyanarayan, Haijun Xia & James D. Hollan. (2020)
In Conference Companion of the 4th International Conference on the Art, Science, and Engineering of Programming (’20), March 23–26, 2020, Porto, Portugal. Proceedings of the Convivial Computing Salon at PROGRAMMING 2020. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 8 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3397537.3397542


Read It This Way: Scaffolding Comprehension for Unconventional Statistical Graphs

Amy R. Fox & James Hollan. (2018)
In International Conference on Theory and Application of Diagrams (pp. 441-457). Springer, Cham.


Exploring Representations of Student Time-Use

Amy R. Fox, Erica de Vries, Laurent Lima, & Savannah Loker.(2016)
In International Conference on Theory and Application of Diagrams (pp. 40-47). Springer, Cham.


Peer-Reviewed Conference Papers

A Psychology of Visualization, or (External) Representation?

Amy R. Fox (2020)
In Proceedings of The Visualization Psychology Workshop @ VIS 2020. Presented as talk @ VisPsych 2020.


Surfacing Misconceptions Through Visualization Critique

Amy R. Fox & Taylor Jackson Scott (2020)
In Proceedings of The Visualization Activities Workshop @ VIS 2020. Presented as talk @ VisActivities 2020.


When Graph Comprehension Is An Insight Problem

Amy R. Fox, James Hollan & Caren Walker (2019)
In Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. Montreal, Canada. Presented as a full talk @ CogSci 2019.


Representing Sequence: The Influence of Timeline Axis and Direction on Causal Reasoning in Litigation Law

Amy R. Fox , Martin Van den Berg, Erica deVries (2016)
In Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. Philadelphia, USA. Presented poster at @ CogSci 2016.


Extended Abstracts & Posters

The Burden of Selfhood

Amy R. Fox, Stefani Byrd, Sarah Ciston, Fernanda Navarro Heidi & Kayser (2019)
In Proceedings of the 2019 ACM Conference on Creativity and Cognition (pp. 481-485).
Exhibited at the Art Exhibition of C&C / DIS 2019 @ San Diego, USA.


Graphical Insight: How to Read an Unconventional Graph.

Amy R. Fox, Caren Walker & James Hollan (2018)
In Proceedings of the 2018 Meeting of the European Association of Learning & Instruction - SIG 2: Comprehension of Text and Graphics. Freiburg, Germany. Presented full talk @ EARLI-SIG2 @ Freiburg, Germany. Awarded JURE Best Paper / Presentation


Dynamic vs. Static Visualizations for Learning Procedural and Declarative Information

Savannah Loker, Erica deVries & Amy R. Fox (2016)
In Proceedings of the 2016 Meeting of the European Association of Learning & Instruction - SIG 2: Comprehension of Text and Graphics. Geneva, Switzerland.


Constructing knowledge from interactive visualizations: How conceptual understanding influences representational choice

Ulrich Ludewing, Erica deVries, Neil Schwartz, Neil Jacobsen, Amy R. Fox & Savannah Loker (2015)
In Proceedings of the 2015 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. Chicago, USA.


Graduate Colloquia

Stepping Closer To A Science of Interaction: A Paradigm for Studying the Cognitive Mechanisms of Interaction

Amy R. Fox (2018)
Presented at the Doctoral Colloqium of the IEEE Conference on Information Visualization. Berlin, Germany.


Overcoming Graphical Fixedness: Scaffolding Comprehension for Unconventional Graphs

Amy R. Fox (2018)
In Proceedings of the Graduate Symposium of the 2018 International Conference on the Theory and Application of Diagrams. Edinburgh, Scotland.


Digital Pens in Diagrams Research

Amy R. Fox (2016)
In Proceedings of the Graduate Symposium of the 2016 International Conference on the Theory and Application of Diagrams. Philadelphia, USA.


Theses

Visualizing Time: The Influence of Timeline Axis and Orientation on Causal Reasoning in Litigation Law

Amy R. Fox (2015)

Master's Thesis in Interdisciplinary Studies — International Cognitive Visualization.




Community

Leadership & Service

2020-22 Diagrams :: Program Committee — Psychology Track
2020 CHI :: AC for Late Breaking Work
2019 ACM Creativy & Cognition :: Local Arrangements Co-Chair

Reviewing

(COGS) Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society
(Diagrams) International Conference on the Theory and Application of Diagrams
(ICLS) ISLS International Conference of the Learning Sciences
(CSCL) ISLS Computer Supported Cooperative Learning
(CSCW) ACM Computer Supported Cooperative Work
(VIS) IEEE Conference on Information Visualization
(CHI) ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
(UIST) ACM User Interface Software and Technology
(NordiCHI) ACM NordiCHI

Teaching


COGS 10: Cognitive Consequences of Technology with Dr. James Hollan
COGS 13: Cognition in the Wild with Dr. Federico Rossano
COGS 14A: Introduction to Statistics with Dr. Drew Walker
PSYC 60: Introduction to Statistics with Dr. Judith Fan
COGS 100: Cyborgs, Now and in the Future with Dr. David Kirsh
COGS 102A: Cognitive Perspectives, with Dr. Christine Johnson
COGS 121: Human Computer Interaction Programming with Dr. Nadir Weibel
COGS 126: Thinking with Computers (A History of HCI) with Dr. James Hollan
COGS 128: Information Visualization with Dr. Taylor Scott
COGS 160: Sensemaking and Organizing with Dr. Robert Glushko
COGS 180A: Information Architecture with Dr. Mary Boyle
COGS 180B: Advanced Web Design Studio with Dr. David Kirsh
BADM 495: Applied Strategic Decision Making with Dr. Rick Hubbard

Contact Me

I welcome inquiries about speaking engagements, my consulting services (information design, visualization design, product design) and opportunities for collaboration (research on graph comprehension, personal information environments). You can reach me at 

amyraefoxphd at gmail dot com