Distributed Cognition Fall 2003 IST 331 Lecture 5

Distributed Cognition Fall 2003 IST 331 Lecture 5

Distributed Cognition u Most activity occurs within a context u Highly complex social and technological environment u Computer Supported Cooperative Work systems (CSCW) – Moves away from focusing on the individual – Looks at multiple, codependent users – Looks at social organization of the work

Distributed Cognition u Hutchins (DCog) adapted framework of individual cognition to explain how cognitive resources are organized within a context to perform problem solving – Socially distributed cognition

Distributed Cognition u DCog describes how distributed units are coordinated: – by analyzing interactions between individuals – the representational media used – the environment within which the activity takes place u Used to examine cognitive properties: – of airline cockpits – Navigation systems of naval vessels – Air-traffic control – fishing community

Distributed Cognition u Traditional HCI looks at analysis for developing computer interfaces for an individual or a specific task – GOMS – KLM – Fundamental problem is failed to take account of the larger task these activities are embedded within – Task analysis does no take into account the resources in the environment used to organize behavior

Distributed Cognition u Ecological approach – Studying collaborative work of a team – Operating with organizing resources and tools – A structured approach to problem solving

Distributed Cognition u One method of collecting data in for DCog analysis is ethnography – Describe what happens in the setting – How the people involved see their own actions and those of others – The contexts in which the action takes place u The unit of analysis for DCog is the functional system

Distributed Cognition u DCog analyst needs to describe: – The background to the activity – the goals – Identify the inputs and outputs to the functional system – Representations and processes that are available – Transformational activities that take place in the problem solving when achieving the functional system’s goal