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Distributed cognition is an approach to cognitive science research that deploys models of the extended mind (see, for example, the paper The Extended Mind) by taking as the fundamental unit of analysis “a collection of individuals and artefacts and their relations to each other in a particular work practice” (Rogers and Ellis, 1994 ). “DCog” is a specific approach to distributed cognition (distinct from other meanings) which takes a computational perspective towards goal-based activity systems. Dcog frameworks employed were originally developed in the mid-1980s by Edwin Hutchins, who continues to be the leading pioneer and whose research is based at the University of California at San Diego. Using insights from sociology, cognitive science, and the psychology of Vygotsky (cf. cultural-historical psychology) it emphasizes the ways that cognition is off-loaded into the environment through social and technological means. It is a framework for studying cognition rather than a type of cognition. This framework involves the coordination between individuals, artifacts and the environment. According to Zhang & Norman(1994),〔Zhang, J. & Norman, D.A. (1994) "Representations in Distributed Cognitive Tasks", Cognitive Science, 18, 87-122.〕 the distributed cognition approach has three key components: # Embodiment of information that is embedded in representations of interaction # Coordination of enaction among embodied agents # Ecological contributions to a cognitive ecosystem ‘Dcog’ studies the “propagation of representational states across media” (Rogers and Ellis, ibid.). Mental content is considered to be non-reducible to individual cognition and is more properly understood as off-loaded and extended into the environment, where information is also made available to other agents (Heylighen, Heath, & Overwalle, 2003). It is often understood as an approach in specific opposition to earlier and still prevalent “brain in a vat” models which ignore “situatedness, embodiment and enaction” as key to any cognitive act (Ibid.). These representation-based frameworks consider distributed cognition as “a cognitive system whose structures and processes are distributed between internal and external representations, across a group of individuals, and across space and time” (Zhang and Patel, 2006). In general terms, they consider a distributed cognition system to have two components: internal and external representations. In their description, internal representations are knowledge and structure in individuals’ minds while external representations are knowledge and structure in the external environment (Zhang, 1997b; Zhang and Norman, 1994). 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 (re)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: # 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. # Processes may be distributed through time in such a way that the products of earlier events can transform the nature of related events. ==Early research== John Milton Roberts thought that social organization could be seen as cognition through a community . He described the cognitive aspects of a society by looking at the present information and how it moves through the people in the society. Daniel L. Schwartz (1978) proposed a distribution of cognition through culture and the distribution of beliefs across the members of a society. 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 metaphor of cognitive science where a System is considered in terms of its inputs and outputs and tasks are decomposed into a Problem space (Perry, 1998). He believed that information should be studied through the representation within the media or artefact 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 1999, Gavriel Salomon stated that there were two classes of distributive cognition: shared cognition and off-loading. 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) defined five appropriate domains of investigation for research in Dcog: # External cultural tools, artefacts, and symbol systems. # Natural environmental resources. # Interpersonal and social distribution or scaffolding. # Embodied capacities and skills. # Internalized cognitive artefacts. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Distributed cognition」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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