Humans are closely coupled with their environments. They rely on being ‘embedded’ to help coordinate the use of their internal cognitive resources with external tools and resources. Consequently, everyday cognition, even cognition in the absence of others, may be viewed as partially distributed. As cognitive scientists our job is to discover and explain the principles governing this distribution: principles of coordination, externalization, and interaction. As designers our job is to use these principles, especially if they can be converted to metrics, in order to invent and evaluate candidate designs. After discussing a few principles of interaction and embedding I discuss the usefulness of a range of metrics derived from economics, computational complexity, and psychology.
2025. The Ecological Social Psychology of Aviation Disasters. Ecological Psychology 37:1 ► pp. 66 ff.
Bissoonauth, Chitraj, Thomas Fischer & Christiane M. Herr
2025. Extended Linkography to Scrutinise the Distinction Between Epistemic and Pragmatic Actions in Design. In Advances in the Integration of Technology and the Built Environment [Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering, 593], ► pp. 331 ff.
Sims, Ric
2025. Traces of thinking: a stigmergic approach to 4E cognition. Synthese 206:1
Tomczyk, Barbara
2024. Rozproszony system człowiek-artefakt jako autonomiczny sprawca. Racje i wątpliwości. Studia Philosophiae Christianae 60:1 ► pp. 43 ff.
Beni, Majid D., Ahti-Veikko Pietarinen & Mirko Farina
2023. Editorial: Distributed and embodied cognition in scientific contexts. Frontiers in Psychology 14
Fernandez Velasco, Pablo
2023. Entropy, prediction and the cultural ecosystem of human cognition. Synthese 201:3
Inoue, Takuya
2023. Toward an ecological model of language: from cognitive linguistics to ecological semantics. Language Sciences 100 ► pp. 101582 ff.
Lebahn-Hadidi, Malte, Lotte Abildgren, Lise Hounsgaard & Sune Vork Steffensen
2023. Integrating cognitive ethnography and phenomenology: rethinking the study of patient safety in healthcare organisations. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 22:1 ► pp. 193 ff.
Martín-Lucas, Judith & Ángel García del Dujo
2023. Knowledge-building in an environment mediated by digital technology: A case study in higher education. Education and Information Technologies 28:3 ► pp. 3267 ff.
Beni, Majid D.
2021. Inflating the social aspects of cognitive structural realism. European Journal for Philosophy of Science 11:3
Manakas, Emmanouil
2021. The “Polymourphously Perverse” Lobster of our Attention: a rhizomatic conversation yet not rhizomatic enough. European Journal of Psychotherapy & Counselling 23:3 ► pp. 357 ff.
Theiner, Georg
2021. The Extended Mind: A Chapter in the History of Transhumanism. In The Mind-Technology Problem [Studies in Brain and Mind, 18], ► pp. 275 ff.
Weir, Charlene R, Peter Taber, Teresa Taft, Thomas J Reese, Barbara Jones & Guilherme Del Fiol
2021. Feeling and thinking: can theories of human motivation explain how EHR design impacts clinician burnout?. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association 28:5 ► pp. 1042 ff.
Asmis, Elizabeth
2020. A Tribute to a Hero: Marx’s Interpretation of Epicurus in his Dissertation. In Approaches to Lucretius, ► pp. 241 ff.
Butterfield, David
2020. Critical Responses to the Most Difficult Textual Problem in Lucretius. In Approaches to Lucretius, ► pp. 19 ff.
Farrell, Joseph
2020. Was Memmius a Good King?. In Approaches to Lucretius, ► pp. 219 ff.
Gee, Emma
2020. The Rising and Setting Soul in Lucretius,De Rerum Natura3. In Approaches to Lucretius, ► pp. 195 ff.
Goldschmidt, Nora
2020. Reading the ‘Implied Author’ in Lucretius’De Rerum Natura. In Approaches to Lucretius, ► pp. 43 ff.
Kennedy, Duncan F.
2020. Plato and Lucretius on the Theoretical Subject. In Approaches to Lucretius, ► pp. 259 ff.
KUMCU, Alper
2020. Konferans Salonunda Dağıtık Biliş: Andaş Çeviri Sürecine Yeni Bir Bakış. Hacettepe Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi 37:1 ► pp. 170 ff.
Morrison, A. D.
2020. Arguing over Text(s): Master-Texts vs. Intertexts in the Criticism of Lucretius. In Approaches to Lucretius, ► pp. 157 ff.
Murphy, Maiya
2020. Training ecologies for the actor-creator and Gordon Craig’s School for the Art of the Theatre. Theatre, Dance and Performance Training 11:3 ► pp. 285 ff.
Nethercut, Jason
2020. Lucretian Echoes. In Approaches to Lucretius, ► pp. 124 ff.
Donncha O'Rourke
2020. Approaches to Lucretius,
O’Keefe, Tim
2020. Lucretius and the Philosophical Use of Literary Persuasion. In Approaches to Lucretius, ► pp. 177 ff.
O’Rourke, Donncha
2020. Infinity, Enclosure and False Closure in Lucretius’De Rerum Natura. In Approaches to Lucretius, ► pp. 103 ff.
O’Rourke, Donncha
2020. Introduction. In Approaches to Lucretius, ► pp. 1 ff.
Shearin, Wilson H.
2020. Saussure’scahiersand Lucretius’elementa: A Reconsideration of the Letters–Atoms Analogy. In Approaches to Lucretius, ► pp. 140 ff.
Taylor, Barnaby
2020. Common Ground in Lucretius’De Rerum Natura. In Approaches to Lucretius, ► pp. 59 ff.
Tutrone, Fabio
2020. Coming to Know Epicurus’ Truth: Distributed Cognition in Lucretius’De Rerum Natura. In Approaches to Lucretius, ► pp. 80 ff.
Amon, Mary Jean & Luis H. Favela
2019. Distributed cognition criteria: Defined, operationalized, and applied to human-dog systems. Behavioural Processes 162 ► pp. 167 ff.
Takada, Yuji, Erwin R. Boer & Tetsuo Sawaragi
2017. Driver assist system for human–machine interaction. Cognition, Technology & Work 19:4 ► pp. 819 ff.
Theiner, Georg & Chris Drain
2017. What’s the Matter with cognition? A ‘Vygotskian’ perspective on material engagement theory. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 16:5 ► pp. 837 ff.
Vaccari, Andres Pablo
2017. Against cognitive artifacts: extended cognition and the problem of defining ‘artifact’. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 16:5 ► pp. 879 ff.
Ritella, Giuseppe, Maria Beatrice Ligorio & Kai Hakkarainen
2016. The role of context in a collaborative problem-solving task during professional development. Technology, Pedagogy and Education 25:3 ► pp. 395 ff.
2016. Cognitive events in a problem-solving task: a qualitative method for investigating interactivity in the 17 Animals problem. Journal of Cognitive Psychology 28:1 ► pp. 79 ff.
Apud, Ismael
2015. Ayahuasca from Peru to Uruguay: Ritual Design and Redesign through a Distributed Cognition Approach. Anthropology of Consciousness 26:1 ► pp. 1 ff.
Freiman, Marcelle
2015. The Art of Drafting and Revision: Extended Mind in Creative Writing. New Writing 12:1 ► pp. 48 ff.
Glăveanu, Vlad Petre
2014. From Cognitive to Cultural Theories of ‘Distribution’: A Creativity Framework. In Distributed Creativity [SpringerBriefs in Psychology, ], ► pp. 15 ff.
Glăveanu, Vlad Petre
2014. Creativity and Materiality. In Distributed Creativity [SpringerBriefs in Psychology, ], ► pp. 49 ff.
Parsons, Paul & Kamran Sedig
2014. Distribution of Information Processing While Performing Complex Cognitive Activities with Visualization Tools. In Handbook of Human Centric Visualization, ► pp. 693 ff.
Rajkomar, Atish, Ann Blandford & Astrid Mayer
2014. Coping with complexity in home hemodialysis: a fresh perspective on time as a medium of Distributed Cognition. Cognition, Technology & Work 16:3 ► pp. 337 ff.
Stevens, Catherine J.
2014. Implications for Cognitive Studies of Musical Expressiveness. In Expressiveness in music performance, ► pp. 335 ff.
Heersmink, Richard
2013. Embodied Tools, Cognitive Tools and Brain-Computer Interfaces. Neuroethics 6:1 ► pp. 207 ff.
Heersmink, Richard
2013. A Taxonomy of Cognitive Artifacts: Function, Information, and Categories. Review of Philosophy and Psychology 4:3 ► pp. 465 ff.
Heersmink, Richard
2017. Distributed Cognition and Distributed Morality: Agency, Artifacts and Systems. Science and Engineering Ethics 23:2 ► pp. 431 ff.
Huebner, Bryce
2013. Socially embedded cognition. Cognitive Systems Research 25-26 ► pp. 13 ff.
Steffensen, Sune Vork
2013. Human Interactivity: Problem-Solving, Solution-Probing and Verbal Patterns in the Wild. In Cognition Beyond the Brain, ► pp. 195 ff.
Steffensen, Sune Vork
2016. Cognitive probatonics: Towards an ecological psychology of cognitive particulars. New Ideas in Psychology 42 ► pp. 29 ff.
Steffensen, Sune Vork
2017. Human Interactivity: Problem-Finding, Problem-Solving, and Verbal Patterns in the Wild. In Cognition Beyond the Brain, ► pp. 85 ff.
Bakdash, Jonathan Z. & Frank A. Drews
2012. Using knowledge in the world to improve patient safety: Designing affordances in health care equipment to specify a sequential “checklist”. Human Factors and Ergonomics in Manufacturing & Service Industries 22:1 ► pp. 7 ff.
Loader, Paul
2012. The epistemic/pragmatic dichotomy. Philosophical Explorations 15:2 ► pp. 219 ff.
Migdał, Piotr, Joanna Rączaszek-Leonardi, Michał Denkiewicz & Dariusz Plewczynski
2012. Information-sharing and aggregation models for interacting minds. Journal of Mathematical Psychology 56:6 ► pp. 417 ff.
Pedersen, Sarah Bro
2012. Interactivity in health care: bodies, values and dynamics. Language Sciences 34:5 ► pp. 532 ff.
Woelert, Peter
2012. Idealization and external symbolic storage: the epistemic and technical dimensions of theoretic cognition. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 11:3 ► pp. 335 ff.
Woelert, Peter
2013. The ‘Economy of Memory’: Publications, Citations, and the Paradox of Effective Research Governance. Minerva 51:3 ► pp. 341 ff.
Abrahamson, Dor & Dragan Trninic
2011. Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children, ► pp. 1 ff.
Vallée-Tourangeau, Frédéric & Gaëlle Villejoubert
2011. La résolution de problème naturalisée. Enfance 2011:01 ► pp. 93 ff.
Vallée-Tourangeau, Frédéric & Gaëlle Villejoubert
2011. La résolution de problème naturalisée. Enfance N° 1:1 ► pp. 93 ff.
Vallée-Tourangeau, Frédéric & Gaëlle Villejoubert
2013. Naturalising Problem Solving. In Cognition Beyond the Brain, ► pp. 241 ff.
Cowley, Stephen & Frédéric Vallée-Tourangeau
2010. Thinking in action. AI & SOCIETY 25:4 ► pp. 469 ff.
Soler, Julien & Pascale Trompette
2010. Une technologie pour la santé : traces et expertises. Revue d'anthropologie des connaissances 4:1
Sutton, John, Celia B. Harris, Paul G. Keil & Amanda J. Barnier
2010. The psychology of memory, extended cognition, and socially distributed remembering. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 9:4 ► pp. 521 ff.
Martin, Taylor
2009. A Theory of Physically Distributed Learning: How External Environments and Internal States Interact in Mathematics Learning. Child Development Perspectives 3:3 ► pp. 140 ff.
Pike, William A., John Stasko, Remco Chang & Theresa A. O'Connell
2009. The Science of Interaction. Information Visualization 8:4 ► pp. 263 ff.
Barnier, Amanda J. & John Sutton
2008. From individual to collective memory: Theoretical and empirical perspectives. Memory 16:3 ► pp. 177 ff.
Barnier, Amanda J., John Sutton, Celia B. Harris & Robert A. Wilson
2008. A conceptual and empirical framework for the social distribution of cognition: The case of memory. Cognitive Systems Research 9:1-2 ► pp. 33 ff.
Conein, Bernard & Matthieu Latapy
2008. Les usages épistémiques des réseaux de communication électronique : Le cas de l’Open-Source. Sociologie du Travail 50:3 ► pp. 331 ff.
Conein, Bernard & Matthieu Latapy
2008. Les usages épistémiques des réseaux de communication électronique : Le cas de l’Open-Source. Sociologie du travail 50:3 ► pp. 331 ff.
Zhicheng Liu, N. Nersessian & J. Stasko
2008. Distributed Cognition as a Theoretical Framework for Information Visualization. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics 14:6 ► pp. 1173 ff.
Sutton, John
2001. Remembering. In The Cambridge Handbook of Situated Cognition, ► pp. 217 ff.
Sutton, John
2008. Material Agency, Skills and History: Distributed Cognition and the Archaeology of Memory. In Material Agency, ► pp. 37 ff.
[no author supplied]
2020. Index Locorum. In Approaches to Lucretius, ► pp. 313 ff.
[no author supplied]
2020. Works Cited. In Approaches to Lucretius, ► pp. 282 ff.
[no author supplied]
2020. Preface. In Approaches to Lucretius, ► pp. xi ff.
[no author supplied]
2020. Index Rerum. In Approaches to Lucretius, ► pp. 323 ff.
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