Amy Rae Fox

Research Interests

Thinking with External Representations in Distributed Cognitive Systems

[cognition] graph comprehension, diagrammatic reasoning, representational competency

[computing] personal information environments, personal knowledge management, interruption & task resumption

[transdisciplinary] science communication, semiotics, philosophy of information

Academic Appointments

2022-2024 Distinguished PostDoctoral Fellow
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
MIT Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL)
MIT School of Engineering
MIT Visualization Group

Education

2022 PhD Cognitive Science
University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA.
Advisor: Dr. James, D. Hollan

2015 MA Interdisciplinary Studies (with distinction)
California State University — Chico, Chico, CA, USA.
Advisors: Dr. Neil Schwartz, Dr. Wolfgang Schnotz, Dr. Martin Van den Berg

2015 MSEd Instructional Design
Université Pierre Mendes France Grenoble, France.
(Master sciences de l’éducation professionnelle ingénierie de la formation) Advisor: Dr. Erica de Vries

2004 BSc Computer Science
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.

Fellowships & Scholarships

2022 Postdoctoral Fellowship for Engineering Excellence
MIT School of Engineering, Cambridge, MA, USA

2022 METEOR Postdoctoral Fellowship
MIT CSAIL, Cambridge, MA, USA

2016 National Defense Science and Engineering Doctoral Fellowship (NDSEG)
United States Department of Defense, Washington, DC, USA.

2000 John Mothley Morehead Scholarship (Morehead-Cain Award)
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

INSTRUCTOR OF RECORD

UC SAN DIEGO

FALL 2021 COGS 126: Thinking with Computers
SS1 2021 COGS 14B: Introduction to Statistical Analysis

TEACHING ASSISTANT

UC SAN DIEGO

METHODS & STATISTICS
xxxx,XXXX PSYC 60 : Statistics for Psychology
xxxx,XXXX COGS 14B : Introduction to Statistical Analysis
xxxx COGS 13 : Field Methods: Studying Cognition in the Wild

COGNITIVE THEORIES & APPLICATIONS
xxxx COGS 100 : Cyborgs, Now and in the Future
xxxx COGS 102A : Cognitive Perspectives
xxxx COGS 160 : Sensemaking & Organizing
xxxx COGS 126: Thinking with Computers
xxxx COGS 10 : Cognitive Consequences of Technology

DESIGN & INTERACTION
xxxx COGS 128 : Information Visualization
xxxx,XXXX COGS 187A : Information Architecture
xxxx COGS 187B : Practicum in Professional Web Design
xxxx COGS 121 : Human-Computer Interaction Programming

CSU-CHICO
xxxx BADM 495 : Applied Strategic Decision Making

Extramural Grants

2020 Microsoft Research : Future of Work Research Grant
(authored w/ PI Hollan)

2017 Visionary Grant : GRC Visualization in Science & Education
(co-PI) Project: Exploring Transdisciplinary Potential in Visualization

2014 ATLANTIS-ERASMUS Scholar Grant
United States Department of Education

Conference and Travel Awards

2018 IEEE Information Visualization Doctoral Colloqium Grant

2018, 2016 International Conference on the Theory and Application of Diagrams Doctoral Colloqium Grant

2018, 2016 GRC Broadening Participation in Visualization Workshop Grant

2016, 2019 UCSD Cognitive Science Travel Grant

2016, 2019 UCSD Graduate Student Association Travel Grant

2016 Young Scientist Travel Award (UICU)

Honors

2014 HASTAC Scholar

2007 IBM Service Excellence Award

2000 Canadian Merit Scholarship — Garfeld Weston Scholar (offered—declined)

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE

INTERNATIONAL SERVICE

2020-2024 DIAGRAMS Conference, Program Committee — Psychology & Education Track
2022 DIAGRAMS Conference, Program Committee — Publicity Chair
2020 ACM CHI, Associate Chair — Late Breaking Work
2019 ACM Designing Interactive Systems, Program Committee — Local Co-Chair
2019 ACM Creativity & Cognition, Program Committee — Local Co-Chair
2019 ACM Creativity & Cognition, Program Committee — Art Event Coordinator

INSTITUTIONAL SERVICE

UCSD Rady Business School Dean Selection Advisory Committee
UCSD Student Information Services Transformation Advisory Committee
EYH Expanding Your Horizons (Girls in STEM) — Progam Mentor

DEPARTMENTAL SERVICE

UCSD Cognitive Science Head TA
UCSD Cognitive Science Research Methods Training Assistant
UCSD Cognitive Science Graduate Representative (to Department)
UCSD Cognitive Science Graduate Representative (to Graduate Student Association)
UCSD Cognitive Science Department Webmaster

AD-HOC REVIEWING

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

Research Appointments

2015-2022 PhD Student Researcher
The Design Lab, UCSD Department of Cognitive Science
Early Learning and Cognition Lab, UCSD Department of Psychology

2019-2020 Research & Design Consultant
SpoonRead, Inc., San Diego, CA. (Ed-Tech Startup)

2013-2015 MA/MEd Student Researcher
Cognitive Visualization Research Lab
California State University — Chico, Department of Psychology

Professional Experience

2012-2013 (Higher Ed) UX Designer / Project Manager
SciMed Solutions, Durham, NC

2011-2012 (Higher Ed) Technologist, Designer / Developer
DUKE Talent Identifcation Program (TIP), Durham, NC

2009-2011 (Higher Ed) Technologist, Program Coordinator
Robertson Scholars Leadership Program (Duke—UNC), Durham, NC

2004-2009 Management & Technology Consultant
International Business Machines (IBM), Worldwide

2002 Information Architect (internship)
Glaxosmithkline Biologicals, Brussells, Belgium

2002-2004 Residential Computing Consultant
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC, USA

2002,2004 Stage Manager / Lighting Designer
American Dance Festival (ADF), Durham, NC, USA

2001-2004 Production Supervisor (technical theatre)
Carolina Union Production Services, UNC-CH, NC

PUBLICATIONS

[IN PREPARATION]

Fox, A.R., Hollan, J.D., Walker, C.M. Graphical Discovery: A Pre-Requisite for Graph Comprehension.
Fox, A.R., Walker, C.M., Hollan, J.D. Scaffolding Graphical Discovery: Implicit vs. Explicit Strategies.
Fox, A.R. Piercing the Illusion of Causality: Are Diamond Graphs an Answer?

[PREPRINTS]

Fox, A.R., Kaufman, R., Hollan, J.D. Falling Down the Rabbit Hole: Exploratory Search and the Case for Personal Information Spaces.

[IN REVIEW]

2023 Wooten, D., Fox, A.R., Peck, E., Satyanarayan, A. Charting EDA: Characterizing How Visualizations and Interaction Shape Insights in Computational Notebooks.

[BOOK CHAPTERS]

2023 Fox, A. R. (2023) Models and Theories in Graph Comprehension.
In Visualization Psychology, Albers Szafir, D., Borgo, R., Chen, M., Edwards, D.J., Fisher, B., Padilla, L. (eds). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-34738-2_2

2023 Fox, A.R., Hollan, J.D. (2023). Visualization Psychology: Foundations for an Interdisciplinary Research Program. In Visualization Psychology, Albers Szafir, D., Borgo, R., Chen, M., Edwards, D.J., Fisher, B., Padilla, L. (eds). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-34738-2_9

[JOURNALS AND ARCHIVAL CONFERENCES]

2020 Fox, A. R., Guo, P., Klokmose, CN., Dalsgaard, P., Satyanarayan, A., Xia, H., Hollan, J. (2020). Towards a Dynamic, Multiscale Personalized Information Space: Beyond Application and Document Centered Views of Information. In Conference Companion of the 4th International Conference on the Art, Science and Engineering of Programming (PROGRAMMING ‘20). Porto, Portugal.

2018 Fox, A. R., Hollan, J. (2018). Read It This Way: Scafolding Comprehension for Unconventional Statistical Graphs. In International Conference on Theory and Application of Diagrams. Lecture Notes in Computer Science: Springer International Publishing.

2016 Fox, A. R., de Vries, E., Lima, L., & Loker, S. (2016). Exploring Representations of Student Time-Use. In International Conference on Theory and Application of Diagrams (pp. 40-47). Lecture Notes in Computer Science: Springer International Publishing.

[PEER-REVIEWED PROCEEDINGS & WORKSHOPS]

2020 Fox, A. R. (2020) A Psychology of Visualization, or (external) Representation? 1st Annual Workshop on Visualization Psychology, at IEEE Vis, Salt Lake City, UT.

2020 Fox, A. R., Scott, TJ. (2020) Surfacing Misconceptions Through Visualization Critique. The VisActivities Workshop, at IEEE Vis, Salt Lake City, UT.

2019 Fox, A. R., Hollan, J., Walker, CM. (2019). When Graph Comprehension is an Insight Problem. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of The Cognitive Science Society 2019. Montreal, QC.

2019 Fox, A. R., Byrd, S., Ciston, S., Navarro, F., Kayser, H. (2019) The Burden of Selfhood. In Proceedings of the 2019 ACM Conference on Creativity and Cognition. San Diego, CA.

2016 Fox, A. R., van den Berg, M., & de Vries, E. (2016). Representing Sequence: The Infuence of Timeline Axis and Direction on Causal Reasoning in Litigation Law. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of The Cognitive Science Society 2016. Philadelphia, PA.

[EXTENDED ABSTRACTS & POSTERS]

2023 Fox, A. R. Can Diamond Plots Mitigate Causal Inferences from Correlational Data?. Presented at Annual Meeting of the Psychonomics Society, San Francisco, CA.

2023 Fox, A. R. Diamond Plots: An Evaluation. Presented at Gordon Research Conference on Visualization in Science and Education, Lewiston, Maine.

2022 Fox, A. R. Graphical Discovery: Transitions in Understanding a Novel Coordinate System. Presented at Annual Meeting of the Psychonomics Society, Boston, MA.

2017 Fox, A. R. Who Are We? Mapping Communities of Practice in Visual Communication. Presented at Gordon Research Conference on Visualization in Science and Education, Lewiston, Maine.

2018 Fox, A. R., Walker, CM, Hollan, J. (2018). Graphical Insight: How To Read an Unconventional Graph. In Proceedings of the European Association of Learning And Instruction (EARLI) — SIG 2 Text and Graph Comprehension. Freiburg, Germany. BEST PAPER PRESENTATION AWARD

2017 Fox, A. R. Can we Scaffold Comprehension for Unconventional Graphs? Presented at Gordon Research Conference on Visualization in Science and Education, Lewiston, Maine.

2015 Loker, S., de Vries, E., Fox, A.R (2015). Dynamic vs. Static Visualizations for Learning Procedural and Declarative Information. Annual Conference of the American Educational Research Association (AERA).

2015 Ludewig, U., Fox, A.R., Schwartz, N.H., Preuss, S. (2015). Constructing knowledge from interactive visualizations: How data viewing strategies infuence comprehension of complex relations. Conference of the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI).

2015 Preuss, S., Nurra, C., de Vries, E., Fox, A.R, Schwartz, N. H. (2015). Impact of need for cognition and design of infographics on attitude change: a study on homophobia. Conference of the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI).

[DOCTORAL COLLOQUIA]

2018 Fox, A. R. (2018). Stepping Closer to a Science of Interaction in Information Visualization. IEEE VIS Doctoral Colloqium, Berlin, Germany.

2018 Fox, A. R. (2018). Discovering Primitives in Graph Comprehension. 10th International Conference on the Theory and Application of Diagrams, Edinburgh, Scotland.

2016 Fox, A. R. (2016). Digital Pens in Diagrams Research. 9th International Conference on the Theory and Application of Diagrams, Philadelphia, PA.

[THESES & DISSERTATIONS]

2022 DOCTORAL DISSERTATION
Tales of Graphical Discovery: A Case Study at the Intersection of Graph Comprehension and Visualization Design. University of California, San Diego. La Jolla, CA.
Committee: Dr. Jim Hollan, Dr. David Kirsh, Dr. Philip Guo, Dr. William Bechtel, Dr. Caren Walker, Dr. Mary Hegarty (UCSB), Dr. Arvind Satyanarayan (MIT).

2015 MASTERS THESIS
Visualizing Time: The infuence of timeline axis and direction on causal reasoning in litigation law.
California State University - Chico. Chico, CA.
Committee: Dr. Erica de Vries, Dr. Wolfgang Schotz, Dr. Neil Schwarts, and Dr. Martin van den Berg.