Distributed Cognition

Distributed cognition is a way

of thinking about human
cognition, that permits to
Definition examine the relationships
between what is in the mind
and the world the mind is in.
 Mental content is therefore
considered non-reducible to
Mental content as individual cognition and is more
a Holistic System properly understood as related to
the environment, where
information is also made available
to other agents, is gained and
See: E. Hutchins, in
International
promoted through different media
Encyclopedia of the working within a holistic cognitive
Social & Behavioral
Sciences, 2001
system.
SUSTAINABLE FUTURES FOR ENTERPRISE CENTRES
 Distributed cognition is seen as the
confluence of collective intelligence
In collaborative and “situatedness”, or the extension of
learning cognitive processes into the physical
methodology environment.

SUSTAINABLE FUTURES FOR ENTERPRISE CENTRES

 1. groups of agents self-organize to form a
differentiated, coordinated system, adapted to its
The framework is environment,
2. the system coopts external media for internal
based on five propagation of information,
fundamental 3. the resulting distributed cognitive system can be
modelled as a learning, connectionist network,
assumptions
4. information in the network is transmitted
selectively,
5. novel knowledge emerges through non-linear,
See: (Heylighen, Heath, & recurrent interactions.
Overwalle, 2003)

SUSTAINABLE FUTURES FOR ENTERPRISE CENTRES

 The extended mind
thesis could then be seen as

the interlinking of multiple brains,

forming kinds of associative engines
where their environmental interactions
are iterations of series of simple pattern
completing- or pattern-creating real
world actions.

(Heylighen, Heath, & Overwalle, 2003)

 How do initially independent agents,
interacting by means of external media
come to form a distributed cognitive
system?
What kind of coordination between
different computational structures
Main questions: creates a distributed cognitive system?
Which features influence the efficiency of
the process?
(Heylighen, Heath, &
Overwalle, 2003) Do resulting cognitive capabilities,
inherent in these systems depend on
the number of agents, the sequencing
of information activation, the diversity

ENID-TEACH
of agents, the presence or absence of
different types of media?
Recent cognitive
researches claim that
every cognitive
process is inscribed in
the so-called 4E
cognition.

https://www.teachthought.com/learnin
g/what-is-4e-cognition-a-framework-

ENID-TEACH
for-how-the-mind-makes-meaning/
Embodied Learning It means that learning processes must
engage the mind, the body and the
spirit.

It means to integrate in the learning

process cognition but also creativity,
What does it look like? health, the social and cultural
dimension and personal emotions.

It means that students are active

learners, critical thinkers and co-
constructors of their own knowledge.

It means that teachers should find ways

ENID-TEACH
to to make learning meaningful to
students.
 Enacted learning
The enacted perspective explains why
students are always asking, “When will I
ever use this?” Our minds look for
knowledge to be of use, not merely to
be stored.

Strategy: Find pathways to practical,

real-world-oriented applications of the
concepts you are teaching. One tried-
and-true method: games or situated
questioning: what if?

ENID-TEACH
See: https://enacted.eu/elearning/
 Extended learning

It is not true that we organize the

2
information inside our heads!
To solve everytday problems and to
memorize information we use a lot of
objects, devices and people around
us.
94 × 250 With the boundaries of thinking and
learning redrawn in this way, we can
start to see new possibilities for
education.
Strategy: Adopt Collaborative learning
and different digital tools to improve

ENID-TEACH
learning.
Teachers should find
ways to draw on
cultural experiences
that feel relevant to
students in order to
make learning
meaningful to them.

See: Dijk, Jelle & van der Lugt, Remko

& Hummels, Caroline. (2014).
Beyond Distributed
Representation: Embodied
Cognition Design supporting socio-
sensorimotor couplings. TEI 2014 -
8th International Conference on
Tangible, Embedded and
Embodied Interaction,

ENID-TEACH
Proceedings. 181-188.
10.1145/2540930.2540934.
 SO WHAT?
The emphasis on finding and describing ‘knowledge
structures’ that are somewhere ‘inside’
the individual encourages us to
overlook the fact that human cognition
is always situated in a complex
This is a radical departure from the sociocultural world and cannot be
traditional idea that cognition exists unaffected by it.
only within the mind or the
brain. Distributed cognition extends the – Edwin Hutchins, cognitive scientist
and author of Cognition in the Wild
reach of what is considered cognition to
include interactions between people
and things in one’s environment. It is
not a kind of cognition, but a new way
of viewing how cognition works.
Thank you!
Any questions?