COGS 100 Midterm 2
Hutchins naval case study: 10 seconds of interaction
"...interaction in which two navigators choose landmarks to use in the next position fix. Position is determined by measuring the bearing of landmarks and plotting these bearings on a chart. A plotted bearing defines a line of position (LOP). Three lines of position define a position fix. This is a clear case of distributed cognition. The individual and institutional knowledge of ship's position is produced by the activity of a complex system involving interaction among persons and complex cultural organized material media."
"Cognition, Distributed" -Edwin Hutchins
"By simultaneously considering the society of mind and mind in society, the distributed cognition approach provides a new place to look for the origins of complexity. Phenomena that are not predictable from the organization of any individual taken in isolation may arise in the interactions among individuals."
Hollan, Hutchins, and Kirsh: "Distributed Cognition: Toward a New Foundation for Human-Computer Interaction Research"
"We propose an integrated framework...[that]...makes a deep commitment to the importance of observation of human activity "in the wild" and analysis of distributions of cognitive processes. In particular it suggests we focus on distributions of cognitive processes across members of social groups, coordination between internal and external structure, and how products of earlier events can transform the nature of later events."
Geertz
"culture is best seen not as complexes of concrete behavior patterns - customs, usages, traditions, habit clusters - ...but as a set of control mechanisms—plans, recipes, rules, instructions (what computer engineers call 'programs')—for governing behavior"
Cognitive systems unit of analysis
-a neural circuit composed of interacting neurons -an area of the brain (e.g. V1 in visual cortex) composed of interacting neural circuits -a whole brain composed of interacting areas -a whole brain and a whole body in interaction ---brain-body-world in interaction -a group of people in interaction with one another and with a shared setting
Cognitive Accomplishment
A way of bringing together the interplay between emergence and the unit of analysis in order to describe the cognitive properties at a macro level Also has to do with the RESULTS of what that cognitive system is DOING in context (of a cognitive ecology?)
Propagation of Representations
Accounts for how different forms of representations are off-loaded into the environment and made available to other agents
the importance of gesture:
As the navigators work, they use their fingers to trace lines from various landmarks to the vicinity of the estimated position. The gestures enact imaginary or provisional Lines of Position (LOPs). These ephemeral structures are the representations on which the choice process operates.
Patterns of Culture: Is culture something "added on" to a finished "animal"?
By submitting himself to governance by symbolically mediated programs for producing artifacts, organizing social life, or expressing emotions, man determined, if unwittingly, the culminating states of his own biological destiny. Quite literally, although quite inadvertently, he created himself. (p. 48)
Which of the following is distributed cognition fundamentally concerned with? A. Cognitive processes embodied by individuals B. Cognitive relationships between individuals C. Functional relationships in cognitive processes wherever they may occur D. Functional interactions between the brain and environment
C. Functional relationships in cognitive processes wherever they may occur
Hutchins tells us that (according to Rumelhart) when it comes to symbol processing, which of the following is not one of the three activities that humans are good at? A. Recognizing patterns B. Manipulating the physical world C. Remembering a set of symbols D. Imagining simple dynamical processes
C. Remembering a set of symbols
Hutchins: "Cognition in the Wild"
Cognition in the Wild Hutchin's seminal work Conducted an ethnographic inquiry on a naval vessel Came out with a ton of data Analyzed said data and further developed DCOG Shows implementations of Cognitive Ethnography
Weak DCOG
Cognition is affected by or shaped by interactions with the material and social world. Action reveals underlying cognitive processes
DCOG fundamental premise
Cognition, in all its forms, emerges from the interactions among the elements of complex systems.
Coordination of parts
Concerned with the "how" of organizational relationships and interactions between agents that are required to perform a cognitive task
So we have both:
Culture as a distributed cognitive system in its own right Culture as a mechanism by which cognition can be distributed
Distribution "in" the medium culture
Culture can also act as a "mediating artifact" that is another means of coordinating interaction between elements in a distributed cognitive system Language, for instance, is one such mediating artifact
the role of culture
Culture emerges from activity of people in their historical contexts, it is not separable from cognition Interaction of mental, material, and social structures Culture shapes cognitive processes (and vice versa) We "build on the success of others"—tools, technology, ideas, environments, models, learning: it accumulates partial solutions to frequently encountered problems Culture enables us to do more than we could alone
Cognition, Distributed mentions three main kinds of distribution of cognitive processes, which of the following is not one of them? A. A person is using a calculator to do arithmetic B. Social organization as a sort of architecture of cognition at the community level C. Complicated movement of an ant on a beach D. None of these above
D. None of these above
Which of the following is the best example of intersubjectivity? A. What you know about this question B. What I know about this question C. What we both know about this question D. What I know that you know about this question
D. What I know that you know about this question
Emergence
Describes how a system can exhibit properties that cannot be accounted for by looking only at the parts of that same system (whole greater than sum) Can be thought of as a primary mechanism by which the parts interact with the system
Which of the following is true of emergence? A. It can be predicted from examining only the properties of the interacting component parts of a system themselves B. Emergence only ever happens at a single level in a system of interaction C. It plays a marginal role in describing how cognition can be a distributed phenomenon D. Is only present in simulation models and doesn't occur "in the wild" E. None of the above
E. None of the above
Temporal Distribution
Emphasizes both the human-scale temporal relationships and constraints inherent in human activity—but also smaller and larger time scales (e.g. physiological structure, material structure)
WHAT IS THE UNIT OF ANALYSIS WHEN TALKING ABOUT DISTRIBUTED COGNITION?
Functional relationships in cognitive processes wherever they may occur
Mutual elaboration of talk and gesture:
Gesture, talk, printed words, and objects all have different representational affordances Gestures may enter into relations of mutual elaboration with a variety of other semiotic resources in the activity system Very complex semiotic fields emerge from interaction
a hypothesis about cognition:
High-level human cognition depends on interactions with culturally organized material and social structures.
Vygotsky: Mind in Society
His main work was in developmental psychology, and he proposed a theory of the development of "higher psychological functions" that saw human psychological development as emerging through interpersonal connections and actions with the social environment.
Minsky: Society of Mind
His work was concerned largely with research of artificial intelligence (AI), and he was co-founder of the MIT AI laboratory. Rather than using the language of mind to describe what is happening in a social group, the language of social groups can be used to describe what is happening in a mind.
Division of Cognitive Labor
How a cognitive task is/can be distributed between agents— breaking up a cognitive accomplishment into component parts
Unit of Analysis
How/where/why we draw the boundaries of what we are including in the cognitive system (e.g. extended mind) Where we draw this boundary has consequences What happens as we change the unit of analysis? How far can we stretch the boundary?
coordination of parts pilot example
In addition to the above example, there are also numerous lights, gauges, documentation, and signs/labels in the cockpit. Additionally, the pilots are in constant verbal interaction with one another, and are following existing protocols.
Hutchins points us towards examining:
Interaction with social others Interaction with the material environment Interaction with the past and the present Interaction with culture
Where is the mind?
Is the mind in the brain? Is the brain a good model for the computer? Is the computer a good model for the mind? A brain in a vat is a poor model for the human mind. Cognition is embodied! The brain is a controller for body-world interaction. Human life is lived in complex social environments that are filled with cultural artifacts. Our cognition and our mindfulness emerge from the interactions of our brains and bodies with this socio-cultural world. It's distributed!
Distribution and heterogeneity of cognition "in" the person
Knowledge and forms of thought are not uniformly distributed in the brain This has been show both physiologically (redistribution of cognitive function depending on a deficit afflicting a patient)— but also in terms of activity patterns The diversity of activity in the brain in both the sensual and symbolic
social aspects of cognition
Look for distribution of cognitive processes across members of a social group - how/what do they share? People share information in many different ways, the patterns of these trajectories of information reveal underlying cognitive structure Social organization itself may be viewed as a form of cognitive architecture!
Is distributed cognition a type of cognition?
No, it IS ALL cognition
Divison of cognitive labor pilot example
On every flight segment one of the pilots is designated "pilot flying" and the other "pilot not flying." This distinction marks a high level division of labor. The pilot flying is responsible for the control of the aircraft while the pilot not flying is responsible for communications.
intersubjectivity
Part of one's cultural knowledge is knowledge about the extent to which others are likely to share one's knowledge and cognitive perspective.
Representations, artifacts, environments
Representations of many kinds are propagated across different mediums—sometimes we attend to the representation itself, sometimes to the thing it represents Artifacts, both physical and digital, are employed by the canny cognizer as part of ecological assemblies. What these artifacts are, how they are used, and traces of their use can tell us much about cognition—pay them close attention in your observations! Our environments, both immediate and those at larger scales, are both organized and organizing. Space is a resource that must be managed much like time, memory, and energy. Look closely at how we utilize our spaces.
cultural schemas (or models)
Schema=units that organize entire sets of conceptual/ material artifacts. Cultural schema = a conceptual structure, shared by members of a cultural group and created from common experiences, by which objects and events can be identified and understood.
Patterns of Culture: Is culture homogeneous and uniform across a group?
Should we think of culture as a patterned ensemble of beliefs, values, symbols, tools, etc. that people share? "There is no doubt that culture is patterned, but there is also no doubt that it is far from uniform." "culture is necessarily a distributed phenomenon insofar as it is brought to bear, and acquired, in everyday interactions among people, no two of whom share all of the culture of the group to which they belong"
Strong DCOG
Some forms of human cognition are constituted in interactions of brain and body with the material and social world. Action is a form of cognition
propagation of representations pilot example
The PNF received a radio transmission in the cockpit of spoken words "one thirty two point eight" which is then read out by the PNF to the PF "thirty two eight" and then set on the dial as "132.8" which is visible to both pilots
temporal distribution pilot example
The procedures followed for takeoff, in-flight, and landing are all part of the temporal distribution that makes "the flight" possible. Additionally, many of the procedures have built in error-checking based on repetition and recording of information (for later review)
True or False: According to Cole and Engstrom, culture is definitely patterned
True
True or False: Hutchins notes that little is known about how the brain accomplishes high-level cognition
True
Week 7 paper's central thesis:
What is required for cognition to be distributed? Interaction!
insights about cognition
You need a human brain to do human cognition Humans have bodies, language, artifacts, built environments Mind and body interact in surprising and interesting ways A person interacting with an environment for thinking can do things that a person in isolation cannot Humans working together can do things that no person can do alone Humans are highly social and our cognition especially culture too
DCOG definition
a theoretical framework for how cognition is distributed across material, social, and cultural systems that, and that moves beyond the individual as the primary unit of analysis
The conversational turns between members of the navigation crew are multimodal in that they include:
environmentally couple gesture cogesture speech body orientation facial expression tool and representation manipulation
Which view of cognition does DCOG fall into?
post-cognitivism
Course theme: distributed cognition
predicated on the notion that cognition is distributed across material, social, and cultural systems that moves beyond the individual as the unit of analysis
