8 Chapter - Distributed Cognition

Abstract

Distributed cognition (DCog) extends the traditional notion of cognition using a similar theoretical framework and ontological basis for describing human activity. The most developed framework of distributed cognition uses the same computational basis to understand human behavior as cognitive psychology and applies the same notions of information representations and representational transformations. Analysis of systems using distributed cognition permits the inclusion of all of the significant features in the environment that contribute toward the accomplishment of tasks. The DCog framework allows researchers to consider all of the factors relevant to the task, bringing together the people, the problem, and the tools used into a single unit of analysis. It is therefore an ideal method to use to discover the artifactual, social, and cultural dimensions of work.