Distributed cognition: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|Psychologic theory}}

{{Lead too long|date=March 2025}}

'''Distributed cognition''' is an approach to [[cognitive science]] research that was developed by cognitive anthropologist [[Edwin Hutchins]] during the 1990s.<ref name="Cognition in the wild">{{cite book | vauthors = Hutchins E |title=Cognition in the wild |date=1995 |publisher=MIT Press |___location=Cambridge, Mass. |isbn=978-0-262-58146-2 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=CGIaNc3F1MgC}}</ref>

From cognitive ethnography, Hutchins argues that mental representations, which classical cognitive science held that are within the individual brain, are actually distributed in sociocultural systems that constitute the tools to think and perceive the world. Thus, a native of the CarolinaCaroline Islands can perceive the sky and organize his perceptions of the constellations typical of his culture (the groupings of stars are different than in the traditional constellations of the West) and use the position of the stars in the sky as a map to orient himself in space while sailing overnight in a canoe.<ref name="Cognition in the wild"/>

According to Hutchins, cognition involves not only the brain but also external artifacts, work teams made up of several people, and cultural systems for interpreting reality (mythical, scientific, or otherwise).

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DCog studies the ways that memories, facts, or knowledge is embedded in the objects, individuals, and tools in our environment. DCog is a useful approach for designing the technologically mediated social aspects of cognition by putting emphasis on the individual and his/her environment, and the media channels with which people interact, either in order to communicate with each other, or socially coordinate to perform complex tasks. Distributed cognition views a system of cognition as a set of representations propagated through specific media, and models the interchange of information between these representational media. These representations can be either in the [[mental space]] of the participants or external representations available in the environment.

*These interactions can be categorized into three distinct types of processes:<ref name = "Hollan_2000">{{cite journal | vauthors = Hollan J, Hutchins E, Kirsh D | title = Distributed cognition: toward a new foundation for human-computer interaction research. | date = June 2000 | url = https://philpapers.org/archive/DAVDCT.pdf | publisher = ACM Press | ___location = New York | journal = ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction | volume = 7 | issue = 2 | pages = 174–96 | doi = 10.1145/353485.353487 | s2cid = 1490533 }}</ref>

These interactions can be categorized into three distinct types of processes:{{According to whom|date=July 2023}}

# Cognitive processes may be distributed across the members of a social group.

# Cognitive processes may be distributed in the sense that the operation of the cognitive system involves coordination between internal and external (material or environmental) structure.

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[[Daniel L. Schwartz]] (1978) proposed a distribution of cognition through culture and the distribution of beliefs across the members of a society.{{Citation needed|date=August 2013}}

In 1998, Mark Perry from [[Brunel University London]] explored the problems and the benefits brought by distributed cognition to "understanding the organisation of information within its contexts." He considered that distributed cognition draws from the [[Information processing (psychology)|information processing]] metaphor of cognitive science where a [[system]] is considered in terms of its inputs and outputs and tasks are decomposed into a [[problem space]].<ref name = "Perry_1998">{{cite conference | vauthors = Perry M | date = 13–15 August 1998 | url = https://www.researchgate.net/publication/2388174 | title = Process, representation and taskworld: distributed cognition and the organisation of information. | conference = Exploring the contexts of information behaviour. Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Research in Information Needs, Seeking and Use in different contexts. | ___location = Sheffield, UK | pages = 552–567 }}</ref> He believed that information should be studied through the representation within the media or artifact that represents the information. Cognition is said to be "socially distributed" when it is applied to demonstrate how interpersonal processes can be used to coordinate activity within a social group.

In 19991997, [[Gavriel Salomon]] stated that there were two classes of distributive cognition: shared cognition and off-loading.<ref>{{citationCite book |last=Salomon |first=Gavriel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sVFFnwEACAAJ |title=Distributed Cognitions: Psychological and Educational Considerations needed|date=November1997 2014|publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-57423-5 |language=en}}.</ref> Shared cognition is that which is shared among people through common activity such as conversation where there is a constant change of cognition based on the other person's responses. An example of off-loading would be using a calculator to do [[arithmetic]] or a creating a grocery list when going shopping. In that sense, the cognitive duties are off-loaded to a material object.

Later, John Sutton (2006)<ref>{{Cite journal| doi = 10.1075/pc.14.2.05sut| volume = 14| issue = 2| pages = 235–247| vauthors = Sutton J | title = Distributed cognition: Domains and dimensions| journal = Pragmatics & Cognition| date = January 2006 }}</ref> defined five appropriate domains of investigation for research in Dcog:

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# Embodied capacities and skills.

# Internalized cognitive artifacts.

==Theory==

In ontogenesis, the first act of the mental representation distribution succeeds in the mother-child dyad that constitutes in the child the tools to think and perceive the world. Based on evidence in hyperscanning research{{refn|<ref>Liu, J., Zhang, R., Xie, E. et al. (2023). "Shared intentionality modulates interpersonal neural synchronization at the establishment of communication system." ''Commun Biol'' 6, 832 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-023-05197-z</ref><ref>Painter, D.R., Kim, J.J., Renton, A.I., Mattingley, J.B. (2021). "Joint control of visually guided actions involves concordant increases in behavioural and neural coupling." ''Commun Biol.'' 2021; 4: 816.</ref><ref>Hu, Y., Pan, Y., Shi, X., Cai, Q., Li, X., Cheng, X. (2018). "Inter-brain synchrony and cooperation context in interactive decision making." ''Biol Psychol.'' 2018; 133: 54-62.</ref><ref>Fishburn, F.A., Murty, V.P., Hlutkowsky, C.O., MacGillivray, C.E., Bemis, L.M., Murphy, M.E., et al. (2018). "Putting our heads together: Interpersonal neural synchronization as a biological mechanism for shared intentionality." ''Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci.'' 2018; 13: 841-849.</ref><ref>Szymanski, C., Pesquita, A., Brennan, A.A., Perdikis, D., Enns, J.T., Brick, T.R., et al. (2017). "Teams on the same wavelength perform better: Inter-brain phase synchronization constitutes a neural substrate for social facilitation." ''Neuroimage.'' 2017; 152: 425-436.</ref><ref>Astolfi, L., Toppi, J., De Vico Fallani, F., Vecchiato, G., Salinari, S., Mattia, D., et al. (2010). "Neuroelectrical hyperscanning measures simultaneous brain activity in humans." ''Brain Topogr.'' 2010; 23: 243-256.</ref>}} and psychophysiological research studies,{{refn|<ref>Val Danilov I. & Mihailova S. (2023). "Empirical Evidence of Shared Intentionality: Towards Bioengineering Systems Development." ''OBM Neurobiology'' 2023; 7(2): 167; doi:10.21926/obm.neurobiol.2302167.

https://www.lidsen.com/journals/neurobiology/neurobiology-07-02-167</ref><ref>McClung, J. S., Placì, S., Bangerter, A., Clément, F., & Bshary, R. (2017). "The language of cooperation: shared intentionality drives variation in helping as a function of group membership." ''Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences,'' 284(1863), 20171682. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2017.1682.</ref><ref>Shteynberg, G., & Galinsky, A. D. (2011). "Implicit coordination: Sharing goals with similar others intensifies goal pursuit." ''Journal of Experimental Social Psychology,'' 47(6), 1291-1294., https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2011.04.012.</ref><ref>Val Danilov, I., Svajyan, A., Mihailova, S. (2023). "A New Computer-Aided Method for Assessing Children's Cognition in Bioengineering Systems for Diagnosing Developmental Delay." ''OBM Neurobiology'' 2023; 7(4): 189; doi:10.21926/obm.neurobiol.2304189. https://www.lidsen.com/journals/neurobiology/neurobiology-07-04-189</ref><ref>Val Danilov, I., Mihailova, S., Svajyan, A. (2022). "Computerized Assessment of Cognitive Development in Neurotypical and Neurodivergent Children." ''OBM Neurobiology'' 2022;6(3):18; doi:10.21926/obm.neurobiol.2203137. https://www.lidsen.com/journals/neurobiology/neurobiology-06-03-137</ref>}} Research Professor Igor Val Danilov developed the [[Shared intentionality]] notion first introduced by Professor of psychology [[Michael Tomasello]]. According to the hypothesis, the mother distributes the mental representation to the child to teach the young nervous system how to respond to environmental changes correctly.<ref name="Val Danilov 2023 Origin of Perception">{{Cite journal |last=Val Danilov |first=Igor |date= 2023|title=Low-Frequency Oscillations for Nonlocal Neuronal Coupling in Shared Intentionality Before and After Birth: Toward the Origin of Perception |url=https://www.lidsen.com/journals/neurobiology/neurobiology-07-04-192 |journal=OBM Neurobiology |language=en |volume=7 |issue=4 |pages=1–17 |doi=10.21926/obm.neurobiol.2304192|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Val Danilov |first=Igor |date= 2023|title=Shared Intentionality Modulation at the Cell Level: Low-Frequency Oscillations for Temporal Coordination in Bioengineering Systems |url=https://www.lidsen.com/journals/neurobiology/neurobiology-07-04-185 |journal=OBM Neurobiology |language=en |volume=7 |issue=4 |pages=1–17 |doi=10.21926/obm.neurobiol.2304185|doi-access=free }}</ref> Due to this ecological learning, the child grasps the [[perception]] of objects and begins to cognize the environment at the simple reflexes stage of development without communication and abstract thinking. According to Igor Val Danilov, [[Shared intentionality]] switches on cognition in the child beginning from the embryonal period.<ref>Val Danilov, I. (2023). "Theoretical Grounds of Shared Intentionality for Neuroscience in Developing Bioengineering Systems." ''OBM Neurobiology'' 2023; 7(1): 156; doi:10.21926/obm.neurobiol.2301156</ref>

==Applications==

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== See also ==

{{Portal|Philosophy|Psychology}}

{{Col-begin}}

{{Col-2}}

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* [[Distributed language]]

* [[Distributed leadership]]

* [[Education]]

* [[Extended mind]]

{{Col-2}}

* [[Collective consciousness]]

* [[Global brain]]

* [[List of thought processes]]

* [[Language]]

* [[Situated cognition]]

* [[Social cognition]]

* [[Standing on the shoulders of giants]]

{{Col-end}}

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== Further reading ==

{{Portal|Philosophy|Psychology}}

{{refbegin|30em}}

* {{cite book | vauthors = Brown AL, Ash D, Rutherford M, Nakagawa K, Gordon A, Campione JC | chapter = Distributed expertise in the classroom | pages = 188–228 | chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=m8Yna0cjxAgC&pg=PA188 | veditors = Salomon G | title = Distributed cognition: Psychological and educational considerations. | date = 1993 | publisher = Cambridge University Press | isbn = 978-0-521-57423-5 }}

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* {{cite journal | vauthors = Gureckis TM, Goldstone RL | title = Thinking in groups. | journal = Pragmatics & Cognition | date = January 2006 | volume = 14 | issue = 2 | pages = 293–311 | doi = 10.1075/pc.14.2.10gur }}

* {{cite conference | vauthors = Heylighen F, Heath M, Van F | author-link1 = Francis Heylighen | title = The Emergence of Distributed Cognition: a conceptual framework. | conference = Proceedings of collective intentionality IV | date = 2004 | url = https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249812898 }}

* {{cite journal | vauthors = Hollan J, Hutchins E, Kirsh D | title = Distributed cognition: toward a new foundation for human-computer interaction research. | date = June 2000 | url = https://philpapers.org/archive/DAVDCT.pdf | publisher = ACM Press | ___location = New York | journal = ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction | volume = 7 | issue = 2 | pages = 174–96 | doi = 10.1145/353485.353487 | s2cid = 1490533 }}

* {{cite web | vauthors = LaGrandeur K | title = Splicing Ourselves into the Machine: Electronic Communities, Systems Theory, and Composition Studies | date = March 1997 | url = https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED410563.pdf }}

* {{cite book | vauthors = Norman DA |title=Things That Make Us Smart : Defending Human Attributes in the Age of the Machine. |date=December 2014 |publisher=Diversion Books |___location=New York |isbn=978-1-62681-537-7}}