ABSTRACT
The more-than-representational aspects of knowledge go beyond language and discourse. The former model emphasizes an iterative process of people’s transition between preparation, collection, integration, reflection and action with an end goal of knowledge supporting behaviour change. The self-tracking devices in this case are imagined as objective technologies for optimizing and experimenting with the body, collecting neutral data, making them transparent and then reflecting/learning from it. Across different studies within personal informatics the process of obtaining ‘self-insights’ by examining the graphs and data points provided by the self-tracking apps is described as a part of people’s goal-oriented agenda to change behaviours for particular reasons such as losing weight, becoming healthier or more fit, etc. The cognitive-psychological and computer-centred perspectives on human learning that have prevailed in research and development of self-tracking technologies have long since been contested along with calls to ‘explore alternatives to studying people as objects to be modeled'.
