The intelligent use of space
Situated cognition - A mind in the world
Kenny Skagerlund - 2015-09-01
Today’s lecture at a glance
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Situated cognition
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Where did it come from and why?
How does it differ from the other ”cognitions”?
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Distributed, embodied, extended (…)
Examples of situated cognition
Article 1: The intelligent use of space
Article 2: On distinguishing epistemic from pragmatic actions
Situated cognition vs. ”traditional” cognition
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Question: How are we to understand human cognition?
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According to traditionalists:
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By looking at processes in the black mystery box between sensation
(input) and motor action (output)
”Cognition”
Situated cognition vs. ”Traditional cognition”
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Question: How are we to understand human cognition?
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According to situated cognition perspective:
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No, we have to look at activity and thinking in the world. Input and
output are invalid separations.
We are always situated in a world and context.
”Cognition”
Situated cognition
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Still focuses on the individual
Thinking with things and artifacts
Impact on Artificial Intelligence
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Planning and problem solving
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Get out of the laboratory!
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Implications for cognitive science
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Joint cognitive systems
Interaction design
Contextual psychology
The intelligent use of space
– David Kirsh
The intelligent use of space
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We are always surrounded by space
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At work
At home
…
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As spatial creatures, can we take advantage of the resources in the
environment to aid thinking?
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Traditional AI and planning
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We don’t have a perfect search tree in our head and then execute our actions.
We plan as we go, interact with our environment and solving problems using
things to think with.
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Memory cues
Solving mathematical problems on paper
…
The intelligent use of space
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We organize and re-organize workplaces to enhance
performance
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Main point:
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Time
Energy
Memory
By using space around us…
…we lessen demands on the other resources
Case in point: Expertise!
Intelligent use of space: Expertise
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Traditional view:
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Experts are cognitively superior in their domain due to
memory ability, quicker inferences and knowledge base
Intelligent use of space: Expertise
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Traditional view:
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Experts are cognitively superior in their domain due to
memory ability, quicker inferences and knowledge base
Alternatively: Experts structure their domain better than
novices through experience and practice
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Not always consciously so!
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Intentional, but not necessarily deliberate.
We are all experts in our everyday environments!
Intelligent use of space
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As experts in our everyday environment we…
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… use resources locally in our environment instead of thinking
and planning analytically as we go.
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… setup our environment in a manner that we have local
information available.
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Through ”jigging” and informationally structuring our environment
So, how does this setup work?
Intelligent use of space: Jigging
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Environmental factor that decrease variability
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Makes the situation more ”stabilized” (e.g. cup holder)
Physical or informational jigging
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E.g. door jam constrains actions
Memory cue on a map facilitates information processing
”jigging” makes the environment hospitable for relevant
problem solving
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Reduce visual search
Things easier to notice
Problem representation
Intelligent use of space
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Humans exploit spatial arrangements in the workplace in
three ways:
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i) Spatial arrangements that simplify choice
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ii) Spatial arrangements that simplify perception
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iii) Spatial dynamics that simplify internal computation
Intelligent use of space - examples
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Using space to simplify choice:
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”What actions do I have available?”
Intelligent use of space - examples
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Using space to simplify choice:
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”What actions do I have available?”
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Affordances!
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Features in the environment ”affords” action (Gibson/Norman)
Depends on skills of an individual
Context and culture
Important in interaction design
Intelligent use of space - examples
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Affordances can…
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…reduce perceived actions by hiding features
…highligt perceived actions by cueing attention
Case in point: Production lines
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Stations give rise to:
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Limited tools
Limited tasks
Limited actions
Less variability and less complex problem-solving context
Less planning and deliberation needed
Kitchen design
Intelligent use of space
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Using space to simplify perception:
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Facilitates action decision by speeding up the process
Ex. IKEA screws, tomatoes at both sides of the sink etc.
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Symbolic marking
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Putting envelope to be posted by the door
Marking a ”x” on the hand
Putting a finger on your position on a map
Putting certain pieces of jigsaw puzzles in clusters
Putting a bill to be paid on the laptop
Intelligent use of space
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Spatial dynamics that simplify internal computation:
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Make computations in the world instad of inside the head
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Rotating a map
Intelligent use of space
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Spatial dynamics that simplify internal computation:
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Make computations in the world instad of inside the head
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Rotating a map
Using perception instead of internal computation
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Frees up internal resources
Solves problems faster
E.g. pocket calculator
Intelligent use of space
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Some conclusions:
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Human beings create and organize their workspace to…
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Implications for AI:
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…Simplify problem-solving…
…reducing the complexity
…offload memory resources…
Planning
problem solving
Implications for psychology
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Take space and context into account
14-16
On distinguishing Epistemic
from Pragmatic Action
– Kirsh & Maglio
Epistemic and pragmatic actions
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Main points:
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Not every action is performed to reach closer to the goal
A critique on AI
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Two sets of actions:
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Pragmatic actions: Lead us closer to the current goal
Epistemic actions: External actions that yields knowledge about a
situation – later payoff
Division between ”Planning” and ”Action” not clear-cut
Epistemic actions
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Improves cognition by…
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Reducing memory load
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Reducing number of steps involved in mental computation
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Reducing probability of error of mental computation
Pragmatic actions
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Physical actions that bring an agent closer to the goal
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Planning = series of transformations from initial state to
goal state
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Purely through pragmatic actions
Using time,distance, or energy as metric
Tetris
Tetris as empirical domain
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Fast game with both perceptual and cognitive load
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Every action leads closer or farther to final position
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Time as cruicial factor will provoke strategy deployment
Easy to discriminate actions
Fun to play
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Easy to get participants
Become expert
Tetris: Some observations
• Moves farther from the goal – gain informational certainty as payoff
• Clearly epistemic rather than pragmatic action
Tetris: Some observations
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Early rotations to get information about identity
Save mental rotation effort and time - matching
Classical information-processing model
This model presupposes that every action is pragmatic
Creates a separation between action and cognition
Epistemic actions
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Action to put one in a better position for computation
Reduces time, space, energy or unreliability
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Pragmatic costs are offset by epistemic benefits
We intelligently exploit information without even knowing it!
Hallmark of expertise – automatized procedures.
Some actions are both pragmatic and epistemic
17-18
Input vs. Output?
Essence
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“The point of taking certain actions, therefore, is not for the
effect they have on the environment as much as for the effect
they have on the agent” – Kirsh & Maglio (1994)
Essence
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007 principle:
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Know only as much as you need to know to get the job done!
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”Evolved creatures will neither store nor process information in costly ways
when they can use the structure of the environment and their operations
upon as a convenient stand-in for the information processing operations
concerned. That is, know only as much as you need to know to get the job
done.” --(Clark, 1989, p.64)
Conclusions and implications
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Critique towards AI
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Critique towards standard information-processing
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No clear boundary between input-”cognition”-output
Calls for situated cognition in Cognitive Science
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A new set of actions
Study the interaction between agent and environment
Cognitive coupling between agent and world
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We structure our own workplace and world
Cognitive systems
Cognition extends to the outside world?