Distributed and situated cognition (729G12)
Examination Fall 2015
This examination is taken as a take-home examination.
The examination is under normal circumstances only based on the written answer.
The take-home examination should be formed according to the following instructions.
All questions should be answered individually!
Always start a new page for each new question.
Answers for each question should be max approximately one page. Use 12 pt, “Times New
Roman” or similar. If you skip a question do not skip the page, instead write, “question not
answered”.
The exam is in total 35 points. For the grading “C” 21 points is minimum and for the grading
“A” 28 points is minimum.
Answers can be written in English or Swedish
Write your name and student-ID on each page, e.g. at the top or at the bottom.
Name the file <yourstudentID>distsitcog2015. (For example lisko123distsitcog2015). The file
should be in .doc-format or .docx-format since that will lead to a more efficient feedback
process.
Send it to matkr28.liu@analys.urkund.se before the end of October 9 2015.
(For information on Urkund see www.urkund.se/se/funktion.asp)
Do not write anything in your e-mail because it will not be read.
The file should be sent from your student-email-account.
Good luck!
Corinna, Kenny, Mattias and Nils
1. What does Charles Goodwin mean by professional vision and what aspects of this
professional vision does he emphasize? Relate his view on this to another
theoretical perspective you have encountered in the course literature, and discuss
similarities and differences between them. Do you think that “professional vision”
is a useful concept? Motivate you answer. 5p.
2. Describe the concept of an activity as used within Activity Theory, and describe
the hierarchical model of activities. Activity theory presents an alternative to innate
mental abilities. Describe this alternative and illustrate this alternative with a
concrete example. 5p.
3. Explain Norman’s view on cognitive artifacts. Garbis criticizes Normans view.
Which are the most important points of this critique? What theoretical perspective
does Garbis, in your opinion, draw his critique from? Motivate your answer. 5p.
4. Describe the basic ideas of Kirsh’s view on how we use our environment to
support our cognitive processes, and give at least one concrete example of this.
Kirsh criticizes the traditional view of expert knowledge within AI. What are his
main arguments in this critique? Do you think his critique is correct? Motivate your
answer! 5p.
5. Describe some of the different theoretical takes for an embodied perspective on
cognition, and how these can be contrasted to a more traditional computational
view of cognition. In his article Anderson relates embodied cognition to situated
cognition and suggests that they have some commonalities. Describe on which
point he thinks they differ. Give also a theoretical or practical example on how this
aspect can have consequences for the understanding of cognition. 5p.
6. Describe Clark & Chalmers Extended Mind-hypothesis. Extended Mind share
aspects with Hutchins perspective on distributed cognition. Describe the aspects
for which these perspectives correspond, but also for which aspects you think they
differentiate. Motivate your answer. 5p.
7. As described by Garbis, criticism exist against Hutchins distributed perspective
of cognition. Describe the main thoughts of this criticism and also Garbis answers
to this criticism. Which other perspective within the course is the criticism based
on? Do you think that this perspective is complementary or in contrast to
distributed cognition? Motivate your answer. 5p.