Study questions 729G12General questions to articles and chapters

What are the most important conclusions the author or the authors (AAs) want to make with the text?

Do AAs draw any theoretical conclusions about cognition in general, if so, which?

Do AAs draw any theoretical conclusions about a particular kind of cognition, if so which?

Do AAs argue that cognition is situated, distributed or embodied? Do AAs think that all cognition is situated/distributed/embodied?

Do you see any reason that AAs commit to a particular theoretical perspective? Do you think there is any other theoretical concept or perspective other than the one AAs commit to that would be just as good at describing what AAs want to describe? Why?

Which unit of analysis do AAs think is the right one for cognition, or the right one for what AAs want to explain and investigate? Which arguments and/or empirical findings do they use to arrive to their position?

Cognition can be viewed on the different levels and can for example be seen as an: (a) individual internal, (b) individual external, (c) social, and (d) cultural process. Describe the theoretical perspectives in this course, and perspectives in some other courses in terms of these concepts? (all lectures and seminars)

Lecture 2Situated cognition is introduced and discussed in several places in the course literature: Mainly Garbis in Chapter 3 and both articles by Kirsh, but also partly in Garbis Chapter 4.

1. What is meant by that cognition is "in situ"? As described in Garbis, what is the empirical material that Suchman has for

saying that problem-solving is always “in situ”? Do you think that problem-solving is always “in situ”? (lecture 2)

2. Based on what Garbis writes, what is meant with context? (lecture 2)

3. What does Garbis mean with "situated cognition emphasizes the social organization and distribution of cognition over mind, activity, and cultural setting" (Garbis, p.39)? (lecture 2)

4. Garbis gives an example of what is meant by the “interpretive view” in situated cognition. What other examples can you see within your own or other people's everyday life? (lecture 2)

5. What criticism is there against situated cognition? Who is critical? (lecture 2)

6. Garbis describes Hutchins three-level framework. Can you briefly describe and give examples of the empirical material that you would need to do an analysis according to this framework? (lecture 2)

7. How can we as researchers or investigators by having a distributed approach to cognition say that we literally "step into" cognitive processes? (lecture 2)

8. Garbis describes that many have criticized distributed cognition for not having something new to offer theories of cognition. What arguments are there for such position? Do you agree with this position? (lecture 2)

9. Hollan, Hutchins and Kirsh, as Hutchins in Chapter 9 of Cognition in the Wild propose a methodological agenda for cognitive science. Describe this agenda. What challenges do you see with this agenda? (lecture 2)

10. What is an emergent phenomenon? Garbis presents an example (p.45). Give another example. (lecture 2)

11. In chapter 2 Garbis talks about ill-structured and ill-defined problems in professional technical environments. Give examples of ill-structured and ill-defined problem from your

own or others' everyday life. Give also examples of structured and defined problems from your own or others' everyday life. (lecture 2)

12. In 5.1.2 Garbis discuss the unit of analysis for his studies. How does he solve the issue of choosing a unit of analysis? In what other ways could he have solved it? (lecture 2)

13. What do you think are the main similarities and differences between situated cognition and distributed cognition (according to Hutchins)? (mostly lecture 2 and 7)

Lecture 314. Kirsh talks about space as a “resource” to be exploited by

experts. What other resources can you think of during cognitive processing and problem-solving? Can you think of any way these different resources can complement each other? (lecture 3)

15. Why is the traditional division between “planning” and “action” not so clear-cut according to Kirsh? (lecture 3)

16. Kirsh writes: “The fewer degrees of freedom an agent has the simpler its task…Ultimate simplicity comes when there is only one degree of freedom…the outcome is ballistically determined.” What does Kirsh mean by that, and how may that be relevant to an interaction designer? (lecture 3)

17. What is the difference between epistemic actions and pragmatic actions? (lecture 3)

18. Are all actions in a problem-solving situation either epistemic or pragmatic? Can an action be both at the same time? Why or why not? (lecture 3)

Lecture 419. Anderson mentions one example of cognitivist thinking,

rooted in good-old-fashioned AI, which is the CYC-project. In what way is CYC a product of cognitivism? (lecture 4)

20. In order to understand cognition, why is it helpful to “recall our evolutionary lineage”? (lecture 4)

21. John Searle created the Chinese Room thought experiment to show that symbols are just symbols and devoid of semantics. Words do not mean anything just by having syntax. In section 3, Anderson writes quite lengthy about

how words and concepts may get their meaning. How? (lecture 4, seminar 1)

22. How does Garbis (chapter 2) describe the term "coupling"? (lecture 4)

23. What do you think are the main similarities and differences between situated cognition and embodied cognition? (mostly lecture 4)

24. Anderson provide a passage from Rodney Brooks who famously reasoned that “…When we examine very simple level intelligence we find that explicit representations and models of the world simply get in the way. It turns out to be better to use the world as its own model.” What does he mean by that? And what other theoretical perspective or perspectives on the course have made similar claims about cognition? Explain in what way. (lecture 4)

Seminar 125. In the article by Beilock & Goodwin, why did they do a

second experiment? (seminar 1)26. In the same article, how could the authors exclude Tulving’s

”encoding specificity”-principle as an explanation to their results (seminar 1)

Seminar 227. What does Charles Goodwin mean by professional vision?

Give examples of aspects of this professional vision? (seminar 2)

28. Goodwin writes “All vision is perspectival and lodged within endogenous communities of practice" (p. 606). Describe in your own words what he means by that? (seminar 2)

29. Goodwin writes, "...the power to authoritatively see and produce the range of phenomena that are consequential for the organization of a society is not homogeneously distributed" (s. 626). Describe in your own words what he means by that? (seminar 2)

Lecture 6

Activity Theory is introduced and discussed in several places in the literature: Garbis Chapters 3 and 4, and the article of Kaptelinin et al.

30. What is meant with "cognition as something ontologically situated within the social and cultural context" (Garbis, p.39)? (lecture 6)

31. Explain the basic concepts of the activity triangle. Describe also the principles for the hierarchical structure for activities. What is the relationship between the activity triangle and the hierarchical structure of activities that Garbis and Kaptelinin et al. describes? (lecture 6)

32. Mediation gets an extended meaning in Engeströms version of the activity triangle. Describe this extended meaning. (lecture 6)

33. Activity Theory presents an alternative to innate mental abilities. Describe this alternative. (lecture 6)

34. Why do you think that Activity Theory has become so popular within HCI? (lecture 6)

35. What is the difference between “object-orientedness”, as described in the article by Kaptelinin et al. and “object” in the activity triangle, as described in Garbis? (lecture 6)

36. Why is it too simple to say that internalization is the process when something outside the individual moves to the inside of the same individual? (lecture 6)

37. As described by Garbis,  Nardi and Kaptelinin are critical against distributed cognition. What is the content of this critic? Garbis rejects this criticism of distributed cognition as described by Hutchins. What are his counterarguments? (lecture 6)

Different theories of cognitive artifacts are discussed mainly in Garbis Chapter 4 and the book of Norman, but also in the article by Clark and Chalmers.

38. Describe Norman's personal view and his system view of cognitive artifacts. (lecture 6)

39. How can we say, as Norman, that cognitive artifacts are extensions of humans? (lecture 6)

40. What is meant with the concept of “amplification” of cognitive abilities? For what reasons is it misleading to say that cognitive artifacts amplify cognitive abilities? (See Garbis chapter 4 for arguments and Norman, Chapter 4 and 5 for examples) (lecture 6)

41. As described in Garbis both Simon and Norman describe how cognitive artifacts can transform the cognitive task in a way that makes the solution to a problem transparent. Compare this description in Garbis with several of the examples in Norman (1993) that show that cognitive artifacts also can do the opposite. (lecture 6)

42. What advantages and disadvantages are there of that Norman's personal view only focuses on the cognitive task? (lecture 6)

43. What advantages and disadvantages are there to a strict division between internal and external representations? (lecture 4, 6, & 7)

44. In Norman and Zhang's description of cognitive artifacts and Norman's definition of cognitive artifacts external representation play an important role. Can you come up with other external structures that humans use to think that do not hold external representations? Which ones? (lecture 6)

45. Why can Personal Plus be viewed as a functional perspective? What problem or problems are there with the functional perspective that is described by Perkins? Do you see any another functional theoretical perspective on the course that handle this or these problem(s)? (lecture 6)

46. How different, according to Garbis, is Hutchins view of cognitive artifacts compared to Norman? (lecture 6)

47. Why can we say, according to activity theory that cognitive artifacts directly control behavior? (lecture 6)

48. Why can we say that language is a determinant for individual cognition? Why can we say that language is a determinant for distributed cognition? (lecture 6)

49. What does activity theory mean by that cognitive artifacts is only mediating tools? What are they mediating for? (lecture 6)

50. What is meant by that cognitive artifacts cannot be seen as carriers of semantic content (Garbis, Section 4.6) and what consequences will this have for the modeling of cognition as distributed? What methodological consequences follow from this conclusion? Compare this with the continuation of the course and why we need (cognitive) ethnography to understand distributed and situated cognition. (lecture 6)

51. What do you think are the main similarities and differences between situated cognition and activity theory? (lecture 6)

52. What do you think are the main similarities and differences between activity theory and distributed cognition (according to Hutchins)? (mostly lecture 6)

53. Garbis writes that an analysis according to distributed cognition usually starts with locating and describing the goal of the cognitive system. How do proponents of distributed cognition usually go about finding the goal? What can we learn from a situated cognitive perspective and activity theory about finding and locating the goals in cognitive systems? (lecture 6)

54. How does distributed cognition according to Hutchins describe the concept of internalization? Compare this with the description according to activity theory in Kaptelinin, Nardi, and Macaulay (1999). What differences and similarities do you see? (lecture 6)

55. In the last section of Chapter 4 Garbis describes distributed cognition as a system perspective and activity theory as a functional perspective. What is here meant with a system and a functional perspective? (lecture 6)

56. Describe the concept of mediation within activity theory. Describe also the concept of mediation in distributed

cognition, and compare these descriptions. Do you think that these concepts are equivalent? If not, what impacts will this difference have for the study of cognition within each perspective? (lecture 6)

Lecture 7Distributed cognition is described and discussed in several places in the literature: Garbis Chapters 2, 3 and 4, the texts including Hutchins as author, as well as the article by Clark and Chalmers.

57. Is distributed cognition according to Hutchins a kind of cognition? If so what kind? If not, what is it otherwise? (lecture 7)

58. What does the system perspective mean within distributed cognition according to Hutchins, and in what way is distributed cognition according to Garbis more than just saying that the unit of analysis should be extended? What does this mean for the study of cognition? (lecture 7)

59. What does it mean to say that cognition can be distributed over time? What is the positive consequences for humanity that cognition is distributed over time? (lecture 7)

60. Describe Hutchins (Chapter 9 in Cognition in the wild) reinterpretation of the history of cognitive science. How does he for instance interpret the Chinese room? What consequences as described by Hutchins follow his conclusion from his reinterpretation of the history of cognitive science? (lecture 7)

61. What differences are there between the use of representation and symbols in distributed cognition as described by Hutchins and traditional cognitive perspectives? What connections are there between the PSS-hypothesis and Hutchins navigational bridge and airplane cockpit (Chapter 9, cognition in the wild and Hutchins article How a cockpit remembers its speed)? (lecture 7)

62. In the description by Hutchins interpretation of the Chinese room (see Garbis and Chapter 9 in Hutchins Cognition in the Wild) the concept of cognitive properties are used. What cognitive properties are there that are not the same for the

parts in the Chinese room as for the whole room? Give examples of such properties from Hutchins article “How a cockpit remembers its speed” and your own or other people’s everyday life. (lecture 7)

63. Give concrete examples on how to get different cognitive properties in two groups (teams) of people performing some task despite keeping individuals’ cognitive properties equivalent between the groups. (lecture 7)

64. What is it that Hutchins (Chapter 9 of cognition in the wild) criticizes many anthropologists for having done? And what division of labor between psychologists and anthropologists did D'Andrade (1981) propose? Can you see any methodological consequences of such division? (lecture 7)

65. What is culture according to Hutchins? What consequences does Hutchins see from neglecting culture in the description of cognition? (lecture 7)

66. What do you think are the main similarities and differences between embodied cognition and distributed cognition (according to Hutchins)? (mostly lecture 7)

67. Towards the end of Chapter 9 of Cognition in the Wild (s.371) Hutchins describes his perspective as a perspective that strive for a functional description of cognitive systems. How does that work with Garbis description of distributed cognition as a system perspective? (lecture 7)

Seminar 368. What similarities and differences do you see comparing

Hutchins distributed cognition and Clark & Chalmers Extended Mind-hypothesis? (seminar 3)

69. What similarities and differences between Perkins Personal Plus and the Extended Mind hypothesis that is presented by Clark and Chalmers (1998) can you see? (lecture 6, seminar 3)

Future70. In chapter 2 Garbis discuss centers of coordination.

Describe the (cognitive) characteristics that Garbis describe

that parts of the system (the humans, the artifacts and the processes) have in a center of coordination. (future courses)

71. How does Garbis (chapter 2) describe the term “complexity”? (future courses)