技术范式转换下工程经验知识迁移的眼动追踪实验研究

Transfer of empirical engineering knowledge under technological paradigm shift:Evidence from an eye-tracking experiment

为实现“消化吸收再创新”这种更适应我国国情的技术进步方式,工程技术人员需要在技术范式发生转换的情境下,准确、高效地完成工程知识和经验的学习和迁移。然而,对这种工程经验知识迁移过程,尤其是其运行机制和影响因素,仍然缺乏充分研究,因而在知识管理实践中对“低质低效”的迁移过程束手无策。对此,本文基于学习迁移理论和“概念-知识”理论提出一种针对工程经验知识迁移的眼动追踪实验研究方法,并以新型增速器的概念设计为例,对影响工程技术人员知识迁移绩效的因素展开了研究。实验结果表明,个体自我导向学习意愿中的创造性构面、对固有技术范式掌握的准确度,以及对新技术范式中重要名词概念的接触程度对知识迁移绩效有正面影响;而固有技术范式掌握的完全度,以及对新技术范式中图纸和无关名词概念的接触程度对知识迁移绩效有负面影响。本实验的结果为构建技术范式转换下工程经验知识迁移机制,从知识管理实践层面提升知识迁移绩效提供了依据。

“Absorbing,transferring,and re-innovating”is a feasible and effective approach of technology improvement for the developing countries to keep up with the technology reform.To achieve the goal of this approach,it demands an accurate and rapid transfer of empirical engineering knowledge(EEK)under a technological paradigm shift.However,it remains divergent about the mechanism and influencing factors in knowledge transfer,thus leading to the incapability in tackling the low-quality and low-efficiency transfer in this process.For the transfer of EEK triggered by a technological paradigm shift,this paper proposes an eye-tracking experiment based on the transfer of cognitive structure and Concept-Knowledge(C-K)theory.This paper firstly reviews relevant literature that is related to the research topic,which includes the theory of transfer of learning,concept-knowledge theory,self-directed learning,and the application of eye-tracking technology.Based on the review,three hypotheses for the performance in knowledge transfer are proposed:mastery of an original technological paradigm,willingness in self-direct learning,and distribution of attention in learning a new technological paradigm.A two-phase experiment is then designed.In the first phase,participants are asked to anonymously fill in two questionnaires:basic information questionnaire,and Guglielmino’s self-directed learning readiness scale.In the second phase,they are required to accomplish the first C-K jigsaw for the original technological paradigm to reveal their mastery level.After a 5-min learning process monitored by the eye-tracking tool,another C-K jigsaw for the new paradigm is displayed and finished,to evaluate their performance of knowledge transfer.C-K jigsaw,which is composed of several rounds of“concept represent,concept select and reason feedback,”aims at explicitly constructing the cognitive structure in an engineer’s mind with concepts involved in a paradigm and enabling a quantitative measurement for cognitive structure.Conducted in the conceptual design of new type accelerator,the choice of technological paradigms,presented concepts,learning materials,and the recruitment of participants in the experiments are determined,and an experimental system is developed.The acquisition and analysis of experimental data are also reported.Experimental results of 31 participants in Shanghai Jiao Tong University are reported in this paper.The eye-tracking data reveals that the participants distribute more visual attention to the area of special nouns(SN),general nouns(GN)and engineering drawings.Precision and recall in two C-K jigsaws are all above 0.5,indicating that the participants can construct and transfer their cognitive structure in the experiment.Linear regression on mastery level,learning willingness,and attention distribution for the performance of knowledge transfer are conducted,showing that all three independents have significant impacts on the performance of knowledge transfer.Specifically,the quality of the transfer is positively affected by the creativity facet in self-direct learning,the accuracy of mastering an original technological paradigm,and important noun concepts in accessing a new technological paradigm.In contrast,the efficiency of transfer is negatively affected by the integrity of mastering an original technological paradigm,and unrelated noun concepts and engineering plots in accessing a new technological paradigm.Combined with four cognitive interactions proposed in C-K theory,the explanations for these results are discussed in depth.The mechanism model for the transfer of EEK under technological paradigm shift is hence established.Based on the finding of this experiment,three suggestions are proposed for fostering the transfer of EEK:novel-describing and specific learning materials,breadth-first learning style,and creative learning circumstance.This paper opens up a novel way to research knowledge transfer,and further research could focus on three aspects.Firstly,multiple technological paradigms that construct different correlations with the original one could be considered,to investigate the influence of dissimilarity among technological paradigms on the process and performance of EEK transfer. Secondly, neurophysiology data like blood oxygen content, electroencephalogram (EEG) and magnetoencephalogram (MEG) indifferent brain regions could be collected to construct a neural mechanism for knowledge transfer. Thirdly, similar experiments could be repeated in moreengineering domains, and discovering more common rules and factors impacting knowledge transfer.