Distributitve Cognition

Distributed cognition: Domains and dimensions
John Sutton -- Macquarie University

I found this article is a mental exercise in terminology and vocabulary and have tried to simplify the article in the summary below.

This is an article about the different aspects of distributitve cognition, and how they might be studied.


He starts off with there is a variety of, or motley mess, as a way of looking at this, but then defines two "domains"

He is going to look at basically two domains Kirsh's distributed cognition and Clark's extended mind DC and EM In his opinion these two are important and deserve further research.

1.1 We use external items and writings to help us process what we think about. Therefore this distributes our thoughts
1.2 We use our natural perceptions and use of technology create meaning as well.
1.3 Our interactions with others also affect how we think and process information.
1.4 Our bodies, skills and capacities influence our thought processes and the sense we make things
1.5 The actual physical neural functions and the strategies we use to remember things

2.0 How can we analyze distributive cognition?
Where we do different things based on different inputs: A person will come to different conclusions about what they take in if there are with someone or if they are by themselves

Where we do the same things with an input no matter our surroundings: There are some things we do that are highly repeatable..and reliable -- that is we process them all the same way


Because of all the interwoven internal and external inputs, then possibly shouldnt research be ethnographic and wholistic.