Sociocultural perspectives: Rommetveits position

1
Sociocultural perspectives Rommetveits position

• Anders Mørch and Sisse Finken
• TOOL 5100/INF 5200, 20.02.07

2
Outline

• The topics addressed by Rommetveit
• Background and assumptions
• Organization of the paper
• Unit of analysis (linguistic utterances)
• Intersubjectivity and related terms
• Methodological concerns
• What computers cant do
• A new foundation for design
• What computers can do Implications for CSCL

3
The topics addressed by Rommetveit

• He gives a critique of the cognitive science
  approach to meaning making
• Presents the dialogical alternative, referred to
  as the social cognitive approach
• Treats these two approaches as different
  paradigms of human cognition and commutation
• By this Rommetveit aims at a thorough analysis
  of socially negotiated perspective fixation to
  arrive at a socially negotiated contextual
  specification as a shared state of affairs

4
Background and assumptions

• Many cited as well as un-cited assumptions make
  the paper hard to grasp in its entirety
• Rommetveit engages in many dialogs with previous
  scholars (intertextuality at work)
• When it comes to scientific method
• Kuhn, Popper, Wittgenstein, Feyerabend

5
Key concepts

• Perspective
• Used when negotiating meaning
• Multiple (speakers, listener) perspectives
• Position
• I assume this relates to the approach of
  presenting hypotheses and statements (summarizing
  his understanding in 24 theses)
• Aspect
• Adopted from Wittgenstein (dawning of an aspect)
• Think of particle/wave duality of light

6
Further distinctions

• Monological approach
• Associated with the cognitive science, thought is
  monologue with one self
• Thought can be modeled to high accuracy and the
  computer is well equipped for thus purpose
• Key proponents Simon and Newell Anderson
• Dialogical approach
• Mind embedded in a social context and mediated by
  a cultural collective
• Additional proponents Wertsch Säljö

7
Key ideas and adoptions

• Kuhn on paradigm
• Rommetveit proposes the dialogical approach as a
  new paradigm of human cognition and communication
• Wittgenstein on language use
• the meaning of a word is in its use
• Popper on multiple worlds
• Rommetveit suggests intersubjectivity as a
  fourth world (physical, mental, objective,
  intersubjective)
• Feyerabend on method
• It is unclear to me what methodology means to
  Rommetveit

8
Key ideas and adoptions contd

• Social construction of reality (Berger and
  Luckmann)
• Shared social reality (this is the ground for
  intersubjectivity)
• Prerequisite social interaction and shared
  situations
• Note It is unclear to me how this term is
  related to Engeströms notion of object
• They seem to be related but there are no
  cross-referencing between the two!
• Rommetveit is primarily concerned with abstract
  (linguistic) objects

9
The problem of AI

• AI (Artificial Intelligence) is the demon
  lurking in the background when I read the paper
  -)
• It is true that AI has had an enormous influence
  on cognitive science and computer science
• The influence is more apparent with respect to
  methodology and less with respect to theory
• Today AI techniques has been adopted in
  programming languages and search engines

10
Organization of the paper

• The paper is argumentative and presents a
  position (set of theses) and gives both empirical
  and conceptual justifications for its claims
• Empirical support in terms for examples (spoken
  utterances) and conceptual support in terms of
  summarizing and referencing previous work
• It argues in support of the dialogical
  (socio-cognitive) approach and against the
  cognitive science (information processing)
  approach
• The computer does not play a significant role
  except as reference (modeling device) in the
  cognitive approach

11
Organization contd

• The list of 24 thesis is hard to read by
  themselves, but they make more sense once one has
  read through the paper
• The provide a summary of 30 years of research in
  these issues

12
Unit of analysis (linguistic utterances)

• Also referred to as micro analysis
• Empirical examples, including
• Mr. Smith is WORKING this morning, he is mowing
  the lawn (uttered to Betty)
• Mr. Smith is NOT WORKING this morning, he is
  mowing the lawn (uttered to Mr. Jones)
• Engage in physical exercise (an alternative
  interpretation of Mr. Smiths intention for
  cutting the grass)

13
Intersubjectivity and related terms

• Intersubjectivity
• Spoken utterances driven by speaker and
  listeners goal of mutual attunement, reaching
  for and contributing to a shared social reality
  (external state of affairs)
• Not private (subjective), nor public (objective),
  but shared by two or more people who (get to)
  know(s) each other
• Grounding (e.g. Clark)
• This is related to intersubjectivity but not the
  same as it

14
Multiple worlds

• Popper would say
• Physical
• Subjective (mental, cognitive)
• Objective (world of shared ideas)
• Rommetveit would add
• Intersubjective (my interpretation)
• Other ..

15
Methodological concerns

• Rommetveit uses a sociocultural-linguistic
  approach to get at intersubjective experience
• Performs micro analysis at the level of
  utterances
• It is unclear where his empirical examples come
  from and the rationale for leisure activity as
  inquiry domain (rather than work or learning)
• He does not take into account gestures and other
  nonverbal signals, as in interaction analysis
• It is also different from macro approaches to
  analysis such as Activity theory (which uses the
  activity as unit of analysis)

16
What computers cant do

• He is concerned about the limitations of
  computers seen from the point of view og
  cognition (referring to Hubert Dreyfuss)
• The computer can not capture contextual
  relationships in the same way humans do
• By this he is pointing out the limitations of
  the representational (cognitive information
  processing) approach to modeling human cognition

17
A new foundation for design

• He is referencing Winograd and Flores on this
• They are also criticizing the information
  processing approach to human cognition
• Instead they suggest a theory-informed approach
  that builds on, among others, on speech act
  theory
• The critique and the suggestions are not properly
  aligned according to Rommetveit (and me)
• Example The Coordinator system in CSCW

18
What computers can do Implications for CSCL

• The computer can be seen as an information
  processing machine (in fact it is built as such)
  and as a modeling device (simulation)
• From the point of use it can also be seen as a
  mediating artifact not unlike many other tools we
  interact with in everyday life
• Concrete tools (chairs, pencils, screens)
• Abstract tools (language, symbols, ideas)

19
Relevance to CSCW and CSCL

• Interaction thought shared spaces (Ellis et al
  Bannon Bødker) such as forums can be explained
  by aspects of Rommetveitian (and related) terms
• Intersubjectivity and grounding (Clark)
• Interobjectivity (Engeström)
• Intertextuality (post modern writings)
• Micro third world objects (Ludvigsen Mørch,
  2003)