Situated and distributed
cognition
Le 2: An extended subject introduction
Mattias Kristiansson
mattias.kristiansson@liu.se
www.ida.liu.se/~matkr28/
729g12
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Literature
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Garbis: Ch 3 - some principles of situated cognition
•
Jean Lave: "Cognition in practice: mind, mathematics and culture in
everyday life (referred to in Garbis)
•
Lucy Suchman: "Plans and situated actions: the problem of humanmachine communication (referred to in Garbis) and articles under
recommended literature
•
Hollan, Hutchins & Kirsh (2000) - parts
•
...and a few more
x
...the meaning of stars
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Situated cognition
Imagine the difference between solving arithmetic problems as a
vendor in a market in Recife, Brazil and solving arithmetic
problems in a school desk...
3
The case of arithmetic in the real
world
M is a coconut vendor, 12 years old, in the third grade.
Customer:
How much is one coconut?
M:
35.
Customer:
I'd like ten. How much is that?
M:
(Pause) Three will be 105; with three more, that
will be 210 (Pause) I need four more. That is
(Pause) 315... I think it is 350
(Carraher, Carraher, & Schliemann, 1983 as quoted in Lave, 1988, p.65)
4
The case of arithmetic in the real
world
M is a coconut vendor, 12 years old, in the third grade.
Customer:
How much is one coconut?
M:
35.
Customer:
I'd like ten. How much is that?
M:
(Pause) Three will be 105; with three more, that
will be 210 (Pause) I need four more. That is
(Pause) 315... I think it is 350
!
•
A pen paper follow-up a week later
•
Results: 99% correct in the market but only 74% correct with pen
and paper
(Carraher, Carraher, & Schliemann, 1983 as quoted in Lave, 1988, p.65)
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The adult math project
Lave
In the supermarket
Formal arithmetic tasks:
multiple choice test, arithmetic facts and ratio comparisons
problems
Best-buy problems in the supermarket: "an occasion on which a shopper
associated two or more numbers with one or more [non-trivial] arithmetic operations:
addition, subtraction, multiplication or division" (p.52).
!
6
The adult math project
Lave
In the supermarket
Formal arithmetic tasks:
multiple choice test, arithmetic facts and ratio comparisons
problems
Best-buy problems in the supermarket: "an occasion on which a shopper
associated two or more numbers with one or more [non-trivial] arithmetic operations:
addition, subtraction, multiplication or division" (p.52).
!
Results: No relationship between formal setting and supermarket. 98% scoring in
supermarket. People abandon math problems in the supermarket.
The predictive value of school testing for success in the workplace and everyday life is
questioned. When is learning transfer applicable?
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The adult math project
Lave
In the supermarket
Best-buy calculations: 25 SEK (200g) vs. 30 SEK (300g)
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The adult math project
Lave
A weight watcher participant
Problem: take three-quarters of the two-thirds of a cup of cottage cheese
Math solution: 3/4 x 2/3 = ½ cup
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The adult math project
Lave
A weight watcher participant
Problem: take three-quarters of the two-thirds of a cup of cottage cheese
Math solution: 3/4 x 2/3 = ½ cup
His solution:
“…muttering that he had taken a calculus course in college . . . . Then after a pause he
suddenly announced that he had “got it.” From then on he appeared certain he was correct,
even before carrying out the procedure. He filled a measuring-cup two-thirds full of cottage
cheese, dumped it out on the cutting board, patted it into a circle, marked a cross on it,
scooped away one quadrant, and served the rest.” (p.165)
!
The problem statement as the solution
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The case of arithmetic in the real
world
What the examples suggest...
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The case of arithmetic in the real
world
What the examples suggest...
The invention of units - units that reflect the organization of their work.
Changing the problem-space by for instance abandoning problems.
Using the resources available.
•
Heuristics for solving problems are contextual.
•
Expectations of settings/situations. Expectations of oneself.
Sociointeractional protocols (Garbis, the interpretive view)
2
4
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The case of arithmetic in the real
world
A pointer to Activity theory...
•
Activities give structure to each other - for instance reading and knitting
The cognitive ability of arithmetic is more determined by the specifics of
grocery shopping (and similar) rather than the other way around. (Lave)
51
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The case of arithmetic in the real
world
Historical side-note
•
1750: fish-sellers math, grain-seller math, carpenters math, cloth merchants
math
•
1820 and onwards: addition math, subtraction math, multiplication math etc.
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Situated cognition
Lave
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Situated cognition
Lave
"The product may be the same – but the process has been given
structure – ordered, divided into units and relations, in action –
differently in each case."
...hence, different cognitive processes.
!
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Situated cognition
Lave
What is cognition?
“seamlessly distributed across person, activity and setting. This in turn implies that
thought (embodied and enacted) is situated in socially and culturally structured
time and space. “ (p.171)
!
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10
3
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Situated Cognition
Suchman
“…however planned, purposeful actions are inevitably
situated actions. By situated actions I mean simply actions
taken in the context of particular, concrete circumstances.”
–Lucy Suchman (1987, p.viii)
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Example 1: a copying machine
Two famous computer scientists
Problem: making duplex copies from a bound document, (it took 1,5h)
A detailed communicative analysis: E.g. From a human perspective, a
machine response confirms correctness of action, while nonresponse means
that something is incomplete
Machine
Two humans
Rigid overall goal
Rigid overall goal
Rigid subgoals
Flexible subgoals
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Example 2: an accounting office
Suchman, 1983
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The case of "in situ" problemsolving
What characteristics do these two examples have?
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The case of "in situ" problemsolving
What characteristics do these two examples have?
Appears to be complex or new problems
Solved by more than one person: communication is needed
Flexible subgoals (ill-structured and ill-defined problem)
...problem solving is (always?) in situ.
1
11
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...problem solving is (always?) in
situ
!
A critique against the symbol-processing account and a specific critique against plans as used
in cognitive science.
•
We can never fully anticipate circumstances
•
The world is always continuously changing
•
Plans are weak resources •
Plans are necessarily vague: since there are to many circumstantials
•
Plans in retrospect filter out situated actions
•
A plan is a resource, not a controlling structure
1
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Situated cognition
Building generalizations from
particulars (Suchman, p.179)
Compare this to Garbis descriptions of situated
cognition (p.53) and Kirsh (next lecture)
5
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Building generalizations from
particulars
The science is in the details
!
”It is not possible to discover these regularities of the domain without
understanding the details of the domain, but the regularities of the domain
are not about the domain specific details, they are about the nature of human
cognition in human activity”
!
Hutchins (1992, as qouted by Woods ,1998)
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Why do we have theories?
Ontological and epistemological issues
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Ontological issues
What is cognition?
Garbis (2002, p.42)
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Epistemological issues
What constitutes valid knowledge of cognition and how can
we obtain knowledge about cognition?
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Distributed cognition
Two definitions (1)
“The theory of distributed cognition, like any cognitive theory, seeks to
understand the organization of cognitive systems. Unlike traditional
theories, however, it extends the reach of what is considered cognitive
beyond the individual to encompass interactions between people and with
resources and material in the environment.”
-Hollan, Hutchins & Kirsh (2000)
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Distributed cognition
Two definitions (2)
“Cognition has nothing to do with minds nor with individuals, but with the propagation
of representations through various media, which are coordinated by a very lightly
equipped human subject working in a group, inside a culture, with many artefacts and
who might have internalized some parts of the process”
-Latour (1996, review of Hutchins, 1995)
!
http://www.babelio.com
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Distributed cognition
Unknotting knots
“…any cognitive theory, seeks to understand the organization of cognitive systems.”
“nothing to do with minds nor with individuals”
“the lightly equipped human”
“…internalization” (lecture 5)
“the propagation of representations through various media” (lecture 6)
...and also cognition as a cultural process (lecture 6)
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Distributed cognition
Basics
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Distributed cognition
Basics
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Distributed cognition
Basics
7
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Distributed cognition
Finding the system
”Suppose I am a blind man, and I use a stick. I go tap,
tap, tap. Where do I start? Is my mental system bounded
at the hand of the stick? Is it bounded by my skin? Does
it start halfway up the stick? Does it start at the tip of
the stick?” -Gregory Bateson (1972, p.459, see also Garbis, 2002,
p.81)
!
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Distributed cognition
The proper unit of analysis
We should “carve nature at its joints” (Plato, Phaedrus 265d-266a)
…where the traffic is low (Hutchins, 2010)
!
How readily it (information) is retrieved (Perkins, 1993)
Compare Clark and Chalmers (1998) criteria at seminar 3
!
Depending on the current research issue and practical issues (Garbis, p.82,
see also Bateson, 1972)
12
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Distributed cognition
Finding the cognitive functional system
1. Cognitive systems of the brain: e.g. interacting neurons with some
function, an area of the brain, several interacting areas
2. Cognitive systems of the human: the brain and the body
3. Cognitive systems of humans and external (social and physical) structures:
A. Cognition can be shaped by interaction with the world (a weak form)
B. Cognition can spread across world, because external entities are
ontologically constituted parts of the system (a strong form)
!
(Hutchins, 2014, lecture notes)
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The weak form: Innate abilities
The case of the Müller-Lyer illusion
(Segall et al. 1966 in Henrich et al. 2010)
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Distributed cognition
In the Globe
Individuals:
Six plays a week
Irregular practice time
!
Constraints:
Limitied access to manuscript
Preparation was done alone
!
Resources:
Plenty, e.g. designated entry exit doors in stage,
easier parts for beginners, rhyming,
lines when to enter
!
Comparison today and then:
Did they have amazing memory abilities?
They learned to be effective of what to
remember
Their cognitive ecology was different
Tribble (2011)
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Old couples
Remembering the past
Old couples as functional systems
How do we remember the past in collaboration?
Facilitated remembering: occurence of cuing
(both succesful and unsuccesful), repeating
what the other said
Inhibited remembering: reference to expertise
of a memory, corrections, strategy
disagreements
(Harris, Keil, Sutton & Barnier, 2011)
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Distributed cognition
Critique (1)
Is it not about individuals?
Gavriel Salomon (1993): no distribution without individual cognition
Bonnie Nardi (1996): distributed cognition diminsh the role of
individuals because they are seen as equivalent units in a network
Answers:
•
•
Distributed cognition does not want to ignore individual cognition
…but usually it says little about individual cognition
Compare to the three-level analytical framework
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Three-level analytical framework
Computational level - the functional system and its goals
Representational level - what goes on between parts, how
information flow
Implementational level - details of how information
transforms (individuals are important!)
6
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DiCot
18 principles of what to consider to do a complete
analysis according to distributed cognition
Space and Cognition, Perceptual Principle, Naturalness Principle, Subtle Bodily Supports, Situation
Awareness, Horizon of Observation, Arrangement of Equipment, Information Movement, Information
Transformation, Information Hubs, Buffering, Communication, Bandwidth, Informal Communication,
Behavioural Trigger Factors, Mediating Artefacts, Creating Scaffolding, Representation – Goal Parity,
Coordination of Resources, Plans, Goals, Affordances, History, Action-effect, Current State (Blandford &
Furniss, 2006)
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A new research agenda
Consequences (3)
Hollan, Hutchins & Kirsh (2000)
9
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Distributed cognition
Unknotting knots
“…any cognitive theory, seeks to understand the organization of cognitive
systems.”
“nothing to do with minds nor with individuals”
“the lightly equipped human”
“…internalization” (lecture 5)
“the propagation of representations through various media” (lecture 6)
46
Distributed cognition
Consequences (4)
•
Hard questions:
Individual cognitive processes versus the collective
How to use what we know about individual cognition?
What internal abilities are left?
!
•
Where is responsibility if something is the workings of a
distributed functional system – compare different complex
domains (see for instance Sidney Dekker)
!
!
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Theory to practice?
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Next lecture
Intelligent use of space (Kenny)
Do you consider yourself as an expert user of your everyday environment?
How do you use space?
!
Literature: Kirsh (1995), Kirsh & Maglio (1994)
!
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