Distributed Cognitions: Psychological and Educational Considerations

by Gavriel Salomon

Overview

Traditionally, human cognition has been seen and studied as existing solely "inside" a person, irrelevant to the social, physical, and artifactual context in which cognition takes place. This book reexamines the nature of cognition and proposes that a clearer understanding of human cognition would be achieved if it were conceptualized and studied as distributed among individuals; knowledge is socially constructed through collaborative efforts toward shared objectives within cultural surroundings, and that information is processed among individuals and the tools and artifacts provided by culture. The contributors to this thought-provoking text enhance their arguments by offering examples from daily life and educational activities. Researchers in a number of social and scientific fields will welcome this book.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521574235
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	12/28/1996
Series:	Learning in Doing: Social, Cognitive and Computational Perspectives
Edition description:	REPRINT
Pages:	300
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.67(d)

Table of Contents

List of contributors; Series foreword; Editor's introduction; 1. A cultural-historical approach to distributed cognition Michael Cole and Yrjö Engeström; 2. Practices of distributed intelligence and designs for education Roy D. Pea; 3. Person-plus: a distributed view of thinking and learning D. N. Perkins; 4. No distribution without individuals' cognition: a dynamic interfactional view Gavriel Salomon; 5. Living knowledge: the social distribution of cultural resources for thinking Luis C. Moll, Javier Tapia and Kathryn F. Whitmore; 6. Finding cognition in the classroom: an expanded view of human intelligence Thomas Hatch and Howard Gardner; 7. Distributed expertise in the classroom Ann L. Brown, Doris Ash, Martha Rutherford, Kathryn Nakagawa, Ann Gordon and Joseph C. Campione; 8. On the distribution of cognition: some reflections Raymond S. Nickerson; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"...an interesting and exciting volume that is a good companion piece to recently released titles with a similar theme...this volume is unique because the contributors thoroughly examine theories of 'distributed cognition' within the traditions of psychology and educational research...this excellent book should be read not only by people interested in psychology and education, but by cognitive psychologists, anthropologists, sociologists, and interdisciplinarians. It will evoke reflection upon reasoning, practice, and the use of artifacts." Henrik Artman, Mind, Culture & Activity

From the Publisher