Distributed cognition is an approach to cognitive science research that was developed by cognitive anthropologist Edwin Hutchins during the 1990s.
Hutchins argues that mental representations, which classical cognitive science held are within the individual brain, are actually distributed in sociocultural systems that constitute the tools to think and perceive the world. Thus, an individual can perceive the specific environment and organize his perceptions following typical mental representations of his sociocultural system. According to Hutchins, cognition involves not only the brain but also external artifacts, work teams made up of several people, and cultural systems for interpreting reality (mythical, scientific, or otherwise). Hutchins' distributed cognition theory explains mental processes by taking as the fundamental unit of analysis "a collection of individuals and artifacts and their relations to each other in a particular work practice". Distributed cognition theory is part of the interdisciplinary field of embodied cognitive science, also called embodied cognition.
Hutchins' distributed cognition theory influenced philosopher Andy Clark, who shortly after proposed his own version of the theory, calling it "extended cognition" (see, for example, the paper The Extended Mind).
Scope
"DCog" is a specific approach to distributed cognition (distinct from other meanings) which takes a computational perspective towards goal-based activity systems.
The distributed cognition approach uses insights from cultural anthropology, sociology, embodied cognitive science, and the psychology of Lev Vygotsky (cf. cultural-historical psychology). It emphasizes the ways that cognition is off-loaded into the environment through social and technological means. This framework involves the coordination between individuals, artifacts and the environment.
According to Zhang & Norman (1994), 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". 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).Heylighen, F., Heath, M., & Van Overwalle, F. (2004). "The Emergence of Distributed Cognition: a conceptual framework". Cognitive Systems Research. Proceedings Conference on Collective Intentionality IV - Siena, Italy: 13-15 Oct 2004. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/Papers/Distr.CognitionFramework.pdf 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, J., & Patel, V. L. (2006). "Distributed cognition, representation, and affordance". Pragmatics & Cognition, 14(2), 333-341. https://doi.org/10.1075/pc.14.2.12zha 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.
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.
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.Hutchins, E. (2001). "Distributed cognition." In N. J. Smelser & P. B. Baltes (Eds.), International encyclopedia of the social & behavioral sciences (pp. 3810–3813).
In 1985, researcher Dan Sperber introduced an epidemiological approach to the distribution of cultural representations.Sperber, D. (1985). Anthropology and Psychology: Towards an Epidemiology of Representations. Man, 20(1), 73–89. https://doi.org/10.2307/2802222 Later, Romney, Weller, and Batchelder (1986) established the quantitative model for Cultural consensus. Romney, A. K., Weller, S. C., Batchelder, W. H. (1986). "Culture as Consensus: A Theory of Culture and Informant Accuracy." American Anthropologist, 88(2), 313–338. https://doi.org/10.1525/AA.1986.88.2.02A00020
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. He believed that information should be studied through the representation within the media or artifact 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 1997, 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 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, artifacts, and symbol systems. Natural environmental resources. Interpersonal and social distribution or scaffolding. Embodied capacities and skills. Internalized cognitive artifacts.
In 2024, Latvian professor Igor Val Danilov proposed a new era in research on distributed cognition by introducing the Mother-Fetus Neurocognitive Model. It explains how the mother's body properties shape fetal cognition.Val Danilov I. (2023). "Shared Intentionality Before Birth: Emulating a Model of Mother-Fetus Communication for Developing Human-Machine Systems". In: Arai, K. (eds) Intelligent Systems and Applications. Intelli-Sys 2023. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 824. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-47715-7_5Val Danilov, I. (2024). "Child Cognitive Development with the Maternal Heartbeat: A Mother-Fetus Neurocognitive Model and Architecture for Bioengineering Systems". In: Ben Ahmed, M., Boudhir, A.A., Abd El-hamid Attia, H.F., Eštoková, A., Zelenáková, M. (eds) Information Systems and Technological Advances for Sustainable Development. DATA 2024. Lecture Notes in Information Systems and Organisation, vol 71. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-75329-9_24 https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-75329-9_24
Origin In ontogenesis, the first act of the mental representation distribution succeeds in the mother-child dyad that constitutes in the child the tools to think and perceive the world. Based on evidence in hyperscanning research and psychophysiological research studies, Research Professor Igor Val Danilov developed the Shared intentionality notion first introduced by Professor of psychology Michael Tomasello. According to the hypothesis, the mother distributes the mental representation to the child to teach the young nervous system how to respond to environmental changes correctly. Due to this ecological learning, the child grasps the perception of objects and begins to cognize the environment at the simple reflexes stage of development without communication and abstract thinking. According to Igor Val Danilov, Shared intentionality switches on cognition in the child beginning from the embryonal period.Val Danilov, I. (2023). "Theoretical Grounds of Shared Intentionality for Neuroscience in Developing Bioengineering Systems." OBM Neurobiology 2023; 7(1): 156; doi:10.21926/obm.neurobiol.2301156 At the beginning of life, the fetal environment is a cacophony of stimuli: electromagnetic waves, chemical interactions, and pressure fluctuations. Therefore, the fetal perception is limited. Since the relevant stimulus cannot overcome the noise level when it passes through the senses, a too-high noise threshold leads to the binding problem. While very young organisms need to integrate stimuli to combine objects, background, and abstract or emotional features into a single experience for building a representation of the surrounding reality, they cannot distinguish relevant sensory stimuli independently to integrate them into object representations. The mother-fetus neurocognitive model explains how the properties of the mother's heart (electromagnetic and acoustic oscillations) shape an ensemble of neuronal activity across both nervous systems. During the mother's intentional acts with her environment (the acoustic environment is shared with the fetus in a low-frequency sound band), the brainwave entrainment provides clues to the fetus's nervous system, binding neuronal activity with relevant stimuli.
Applications The application area of DCog is systems design and implementation in specific work environments. Its main method is field research, going into the workplace and making rigorous observations, e.g. through capturing work performances with video, studying and coding the recorded activities using qualitative research methods to codify the various ways in which cognition is distributed in the local environment, through the social and technical systems with which the workers engage.
Distributed cognition as a theory of learning, i.e. one in which the development of knowledge is attributed to the system of thinking agents interacting dynamically with artifacts, has been widely applied in the field of distance learning, especially in relation to computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) and other computer-supported learning tools. For example, in the field of teaching English Composition, Kevin LaGrandeur has argued that CSCL provides a source of common memory, collaborative space, and a cognitive artifact (tool to enhance cognition) that allows students to more easily build effective written compositions via explicit and implicit machine-human collaboration. Distributed cognition illustrates the process of interaction between people and technologies in order to determine how to best represent, store and provide access to digital resources and other artifacts.