The CHI26 Workshop on the Future of Cognitive Personal Informatics

TL;DR

This workshop explores the emerging field of Cognitive Personal Informatics, focusing on how AI and wearable tech can measure and interpret complex cognitive data for personalized insights.

Contribution

It brings together HCI experts to discuss translating cognitive data into meaningful metrics and designing inclusive, AI-supported CPI technologies.

Findings

Identified challenges in measuring complex cognitive states.

Proposed frameworks for meaningful data interpretation.

Highlighted importance of inclusivity and neurodiversity in CPI design.

Abstract

Research on Cognitive Personal Informatics (CPI) is steadily growing as new wearable cognitive tracking technologies emerge on the consumer market, claiming to measure stress, focus, and other cognitive factors. At the same time, with generative AI offering new ways to analyse, visualize, and interpret cognitive data, we hypothesize that cognitive tracking will soon become as simple as measuring your heart rate during a run. Yet, cognitive data remains inherently more complex, context-dependent, and less well understood than physical activity data. This workshop brings together HCI experts to discuss critical questions, including: How can complex cognitive data be translated into meaningful metrics? How can AI support users' data sensemaking without over-simplifying cognitive insights? How can we design inclusive CPI technologies that consider inter-personal variance and neurodiversity? We will map