Cover not available

Article published In: Writing and the Mind
Edited by David R. Olson and Marcelo Dascal †
[Pragmatics & Cognition 21:3] 2013
► pp. 469–483

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

Bridging the gap between writing and cognition

Materiality of written vehicles reconsidered

 | Maria Curie-Sklodowska University
Published online: 24 July 2015
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/pc.21.3.03try
The claim that the invention of literacy has cognitive consequences, so-called Literacy Theory, is subject to the criticism that it implies a form of technological determinism. This criticism, however, assumes an outdated Cartesian model of mind, a mind independent of the body and the external world. Such an internalistic framework leaves unexplored the cognitive consequences of the material dimension of writing. Therefore, in order to dismiss the accusations of technological determinism, the Cartesian model of mind and cognition needs to be reconsidered. The paper demonstrates how the framework of situated cognition helps to account for the cognitive consequences of written artifacts themselves. Material characteristics of written vehicles such as spatial and temporal stability of the content, fixity of information with reference to page boundaries, lightness and small size of paper sheets, and spatial layout of documents make up the most relevant material factors enabling the distribution of cognitive work.
References (38)
Anderson, M.L. 2003. “Embodied cognition: A field guide”. Artificial Intelligence 149(1): 91–130. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Aydede, M. and Robbins, P. 2009. “A short primer on situated cogniton”. In M. Aydede and P. Robbins (eds), The Cambridge Handbook of Situated Cognition. New York: Cambridge University Press, 3–10.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Barton, D. 2001. “Directions for literacy research: Analysing language and social practices in a textually mediated world”. Language and Education 15(2-3): 92–104. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Clark, A. 2001. “Reasons, robots and the extended mind”. Mind & Language 16(2): 121–145. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2006. “Material symbols”. Philosophical Psychology 19(3): 291–307. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2008. Supersizing the Mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Clark, A. and Chalmers, D. 1998. “The extended mind”. Analysis 581: 10–23. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dascal, M. 2002. “Language as a cognitive technology”. International Journal of Cognition and Technology 1(1): 35–61. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dennett, D.C. 1996. Kinds of Minds. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Finnegan, R.H. 1988. Literacy and Orality. Oxford: Blackwell Pub.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gee, J. 2000. “The new literacy studies and the social turn”. In D. Barton, M. Hamilton, and R. Ivanic (eds), Situated Literacies. London and New York: Routledge, 177–195.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goody, J. 1975. Literacy in Traditional Societies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1977. The Domestication of the Savage Mind. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1986. The Logic of Writing and the Organization of Society. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goody, J. and Watt, I. 1975. “The consequences of literacy”. In J. Goody (ed), Literacy in Traditional Societies, 27–68. Cambridge: Cambridge University PressGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haas, C. 1996. Writing Technology. Mahwah, N.J.: L. Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hutchins, E. 1995. Cognition in the Wild. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kirsh, D. and Maglio, P. 1994. “On distinguishing epistemic from pragmatic action”. Cognitive Science 18(4): 513–549. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kroes, P. 2010. “Engineering and the dual nature of technical artifacts.” Cambridge Journal of Economics 341: 51–62. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McLuhan, M.H. 1994. Understanding Media. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McQuail, D. 2002. “General introduction”. In D. McQuail (ed.) McQuail’s Reader in Mass Communication Theory. London: Sage Publications Ltd, 4–19.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Menary, R. 2006. Cognitive Integration. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2007. “Writing as thinking”. Language Sciences 291: 621–632. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Meyrowitz, J. 1985. No Sense of Place. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1994. “Medium theory”. In D. Crowley and D. Mitchell (eds), Communication Theory Today. Cambridge: Stanford University Press, 50–77.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
O’Hara, K.P., Taylor, A., Newman, W., and Sellen, A.J. 2002. “Understanding the materiality of writing from multiple sources”. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 56(3): 269–305. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Olson, D.R. 1977. “From utterance to text: The bias of language in speech and writing”. Harvard Educational Review 471: 257–281. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1988. “Mind and media: The epistemic functions of literacy”. Journal of Communication 38(3): 27–36. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1994. The World on Paper. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ong, W.J. 2002. Orality and Literacy. London, New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Roepstorff, A. 2008. “Things to think with: Words and objects as material symbols”. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 3631: 2049–2054. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Street, B.V. 1984. Literacy in Theory and Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1999. “The meanings of literacy”. In D.A. Wagner, R.L. Venezky, and B.V. Street (eds), Literacy: An International Handbook. Boulder CO.: Westview Press, 34–40.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Theiner, G. 2011. Res Cogitans Extensa. Frankfurt: Petr Lang.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2013. “Writing in mind”. AVANT, 4(2), 15–29.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vygotsky, L.S. 1987. The Collected Works of L.S. Vygotsky: Volume 11. New York: Springer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Williams, R. 1992. Television: Technology and Cultural Form. Hanover NH: Wesleyan University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zhang, J. and Patel V.L. 2006. “Distributed cognition, representation, and affordance”. Pragmatics and Cognition 14(2): 333–341. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Trybulec, Marcin
2019. Extending the Private Language Argument. Chinese Semiotic Studies 15:4 ► pp. 513 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 29 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue