Action and cognition

Reference: Glenberg A. M. (2006). Radical changes in cognitive process due to technology. Pragmatics & Cognition, 14 (2), 263-274.

The purpose of this theoretical article is to make the case for grounding cognition in action and to introduce a theoretical framework for cognition and distributed cognition based on action.

Glenberg reviews several recent experimental studies which demonstrate the connection between action and cognition. For example, in Smith’s (2005) experiment, 3-year old children were given a bulb-like asymmetrical object to play with. The children who had the chance to take action upon (i.e., to rotate) the object were more likely to include more asymmetrical objects in the same category with the object they manipulated than the children who only held the bulb and wave it. Thus the categorization depends “on the types of action they performed with the objects” (p.266). Another study (Glenberg, 2004) revealed that children who were given the chance to make meaning of a story by manipulating toys which corresponded to the story line showed gains in memory and reading comprehension (2 standard deviation grater) than children who only read and re-read the text.

The central idea in Glenberg’s framework of cognition is that “the basic function of the cognitive system is to select the next action” (p.267). The selection of the next action is “a process of constraint satisfaction” (p.267). In his model, the sources of constraint are: environment, body & physiology, emotions, goals, learning & culture and social situation. These all interact to produce affordances. When the action is generated, it will impact the sources of constraint so that “taking one action changes the constraints for selecting the next action and in the process creates a dynamic system” (p.268).

The article proposes this framework as an example of distributed cognition. Glenberg adopts Hollan’s et al. (2001) characteristics of distributed cognition:
· Cognition is distributed across the member of a social group who combine their expertise to create a product which is different from the sum of all contributions.
· Cognition involves “coordination between internal and external structure” (p.268).
· Cognition is distributed across time, with final products reflecting partial products.

To be continued in a later post