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Things to think with in organisational action

• The presentation will examine the function, use
  and application of distributed cognition,
  focusing on its role in social and organisational
  activity, and its application in HCI design.
  Distributed cognition is a technique that draws
  from the cognitive and social sciences, utilising
  ethnographic techniques of data collection to
  examine how information processing can be
  conducted over a larger unit of activity than the
  individual, incorporating multiple individuals
  and external tools. The use of the framework has
  great potential value in the design of
  information systems, and particularly, of
  interaction design because of its orientation
  towards the co-ordination of information
  representations across external media. However,
  the technique has practical limitations to its
  use and a number of academic questions regarding
  its theoretical foundations, and these will also
  be addressed.

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socially distributed cognition

• artefacts, organisations and design
• mark perry
• Brunel University
• ltmark.perry_at_brunel.ac.ukgt
• ltpeople.brunel.ac.uk/cssrmjpgt

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function, application and use of DCog

• Theory
• what distributed cognition is
• DCog, specifically
• theoretical background
• novel, interesting or useful?

• Application and Use
• examples (data collection and analysis)
• emerging research
• HCI and CSCW
• theoretical and practical implications

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principles and mechanisms

1. the boundaries of cognition do not stop with the
   individual
2. a range of mechanisms may be used in cognitive
   processes involving symbol manipulation

• thus, cognitive processes may
• involve internal (mental) and external (in the
  world) structures
• be socially distributed
• be temporally distributed

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some background

• several versions, appropriations and uses of the
  term
• Shared/ social/ group cognition, ecological
  psychology, situated cognition, situated action/
  ethnomethodology, etc.
• all dealing with embodiment mind, body and
  world interacting and influencing one another
• today
• focus on Ed Hutchins work (lets call it DCog)
• dear old Donald (on cognitive artefacts)
• artefacts do not actually change an
  individuals capabilities. Rather, they change
  the nature of the task performed by that person.
  When the information and processing structure of
  the artefact is combined with the task, the
  result is to result is to expand and enhance
  cognitive capabilities of the total system of
  human, task, and artefact
• why the interest from HCI?
• making the jump easy for cognitive scientists to
  accept - not like ethnomethodology or activity
  theory (etc., etc.)
• information focused important in designing
  technology

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focus of distributed cognition

• use of the term
• Generally used to mean approaches to the study of
  the division of labour over multiple resources
• Other people, artefacts and/or situation
• its about cognition
• information representation and processing
• but with a difference in the boundary of
  analysis
• and consequently, data collection methods
  applied
• Humans as skilled co-ordinators of
  representations (internal and external)
• and not necessarily directly performing mental
  processing on that information
• i.e. applying general-purpose (co-ordination)
  skills and not case by case planning/ execution

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representation and the IP metaphor

• cog sci human mind operates through
  computational mechanisms
• problem solving gt changing problem
  representation changes the problem
• successive transformations on a representation
  can transform initial state into desired state
• involves a computational transformation
• of a problem state (i.e. representation of the
  problem)
• from start state through a problem space (with
  resources and constraints)
• into a goal state
• through propagation of representations across
  various representational structures
• cognitive architecture
• in human minds, representational structures are
  neural pathways
• DCog no distinction between representational
  media internal or external forming a system
  boundary

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how is it cognitive/information processing?

• extends study of individual cognition, looking
  at internal cognitive representations and
  processes

from Halverson, 1995
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the problem with traditional cognitive science

• posits we can understand human action without
  reference to the outside world
• we just need to understand the mind, then we can
  understand interactions (physical and social)
  with the world
• there are some problems with this(!)
• and what if we dont yet fully understand the
  mind? how can we do anything useful now?

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Socially Distributed Cognition the social
organisation of group problem solving

• group activity is a computation realised through
  the creation, transformation and propagation of
  representational states
• SDCog allows us to examine how such computations
  are organised, and how representations act as
  intermediaries in collaboration
• many ways to organise the system to distribute
  the computational load
• some better than others (speed, processing
  resources required, proneness to error)
• division of labour
• determines the computational architecture of the
  problem solving unit
• establishes the resources and processes brought
  to bear on problem representations
• system can do adaptive structuring
• organising and reorganising physical and
  cognitive artefacts in the environment
• modifying the social context

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doing DCog

• unit of analysis the functional system
• individuals, cognitive artefacts/media - and
  their relations
• boundaries set by analyst (! - note theoretical
  implication - !)
• examines information-representation transitions
  
• equivalent to examining a systems mental state
• many approaches to doing a DCog
• a framework not a method
• generally, data collection is observational - the
  cognitive ethnography
• Example
• ConsCo

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example 1 - media transformations

• shows key representational transformations and
  co-ordinations in the computation in resolving
  the problem and communicating information to the
  senior engineer

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example 2 - social co-ordination and cross media
transformations

• Senior engineer (SE) If you look here, theres
  a barrel run there ltpoints at sketch generated
  in the meeting of a section view through a design
  structuregt
• Temporary works design co-ordinator (TWC) Yes I
  see.
• SE So if we dig here... lthe holds one hand to
  the sketch and runs a finger on the other hand
  along a permanent works drawing (in plan view)
  beside the sketch, indicating a line of
  referencegt
• TWC No you cant do that because of drainage
  problems... ltpausesgt ...No, no, I see now.
• SE So if we cap these piles here... ltindicates
  several points on the sketchgt
• TWC Yeah. OK. Lets do that.

• common understanding cross-referencing external
  representations
• bringing together and aligning representations
  collaboratively
• co-ordination of representations is mediated by
  the senior engineer using hands to demonstrate
  relationship between drawing and sketch
• allows him to indicate where the digging (on the
  sketch, seen from the side) would have to be
  performed on the site (on the drawing, from an
  aerial view)
• physically using his body to mediate this, he
  creates a new, shared viewpoint of the
  information on the two media

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Informational transformations
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some recent work in SDCog

• space as a computational resource
• (spinelli et al., perry et al.)
• more than just another factor influencing
  behaviour in a settingand worthy of
  investigation in its own right

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embodiment is spatial!

• DCog examines the role of artefacts, or objects
  of co-ordination
• but these do not just exist socially
• but in real places, that carry meanings, and
  provide spatial constraints that afford
  particular forms of use and interpretations of
  their meaning
• previous work by Kirsh, but supporting individual
  action
• how? By physically
• orienting problem solvers to information
  (awareness)
• structuring social organisation (cognitive
  architecture)
• structuring collaborative computations
  (co-ordinating representational transformation)

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1. physically orienting problem solvers to
information

• artefacts in line-of-sight support deixis
  providing shared reference in social interaction
• angular visibility
• artefacts can be oriented to show to only those
  people within visual range as a filtering device
  (i.e. impacting on the cognitive architecture)
• making visible the computational structure
• orientation of other people to artefacts can
  provide actors with cues to interpret the
  division of labour (i.e. the computational
  structure of the distributed cognitive system) -
  ask who is directing their gaze to what?
• physical foregrounding and backgrounding
  zooming
• space is limited moving artefacts sets visual
  limits on the number of chunks of material in
  close proximity for detailed examination and
  discussion

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2. physically structuring social organisation

• using space to structure the division of
  cognitive labour by managing access to
  information artefacts
• physical division of labour
• moving artefacts allows them to be allocated to
  people/sub-groups
• a physical hand-off of responsibility for work
  (e.g. removal from a common to a personal space)
• simplifying co-ordination of parallel
  collaborative work processes
• by manipulating proximity and access to
  artefacts, information is no longer available for
  processing by others
• flexible and contingent distribution of task
  responsibility without requiring hierarchical
  protocols to be imposed or negotiated

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3. physically structuring (collaborative)
computations

• spatial arrangement of information artefacts is
  important in the performance of the computational
  activity
• a unique physical reality (physical artefacts can
  only be in one place at a time)
• reification of spatially-related abstract
  principles (e.g. useful in categorisation, or
  ordering)
• spatial placement can constrain the order of
  action
• ensuring mutual intelligibility (e.g. one thing
  on top of another, on top of another)
• mapping spatial structure to symbolic structure
• structural arrangements of physical media tends
  to map onto conceptual arrangements of
  information (e.g. top to bottom, left to right,
  close to far)

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returning to broader issues

• application in design,
• limitations,
• current status and
• conclusions

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application in HCI and CSCW design

• makes visible the mechanisms co-ordinating
  representational transformations
• insights offered into how cognition is can be
  distributed across people and the (increasingly)
  smart environments that they work and play in
• a description of the informational
  characteristics of work
• shows representational properties and functions
  of media
• important in developing and introducing I.S.
• highlights information bottlenecks and
  communications breakdowns
• and where not to introduce digital technologies
• cannot be applied directly to HCI and CSCW design
• creative interpretation is necessary
• describes work in informational and computational
  terms
• gives system designers a stronger model of work
• frames social and organisational p-s in terms of
  representations and processes terms well
  understood by systems designers

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limitations and applicability

• developing framework (mid-1990s)
• not an established discipline
• weakly-defined set of acknowledged
  characteristics and boundaries
• painstakingly slow, needs expert knowledge
• DCog appropriate for analysing problem solving
• but not all situations are best described as p-s
• no clearly framed way to do a DCog analysis
• reasonably robust theoretical framework,
• but not prescriptive in its application
• nor how to apply it to systems design
• how is this co-ordination achieved by
  agents/actors? (Latour)
• is DCog an emergent property of activity systems?
• or just a useful analytical device?
• but is this any different from criticisms of
  GOF cog sci

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DCog in broader use

• date of primary reference 1995 - not superseded
• widely cited in HCI literature, rarely used in
  anger (though freq. cited)
• DCog paper Hollan, Hutchins and Kirsh rated 10
  ACM download of the month (Oct 2006)
• and most is theory-based
• less commonly discussed within cog sci community
• although not considered too controversial any
  more
• clearly still relevant, but issues...

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conclusion

• emerging theoretical framework
• goes beyond the individual - functional system is
  an information processing unit
• tries to take account of work context
• identifies co-ordination and breakdowns
• identify some areas that have not been explored
  deeply (space - the final frontier?)