Cognition in the WildEdwin Hutchins combines his background as an anthropologist and an open-ocean racing sailor and navigator in this account of how anthropological methods can be combined with cognitive theory to produce a new reading of cognitive science. His theoretical insights are grounded in an extended analysis of ship navigation - its computational basis, its historical roots, its social organization, and the details of its implementation in actual practice aboard large ships. The result is an unusual interdisciplinary approach to cognition in culturally constituted activities outside the laboratory - "in the wild". Hutchins examines a set of phenomena that have fallen between the established disciplines of psychology and anthropology, bringing to light a new set of relationships between culture and cognition. The standard view is that culture affects the cognition of individuals. Hutchins argues instead that cultural activity systems have cognitive properties of their own that differ from the cognitive properties of the individuals who participate in them. Each action for bringing a large naval vessel into port, for example, is informed by culture; thus the navigation team can be seen as a cognitive and computational system. Introducing life in the Navy and work on the bridge, Hutchins makes a clear distinction between the cognitive properties of an individual and the cognitive properties of a system. In striking contrast to the usual laboratory tasks of research in cognitive science, he adopts David Marr's paradigm and applies the principal metaphor of cognitive science - cognition as computation - to the navigation task. After comparing modern Western navigation with the method practiced inMicronesia, Hutchins explores the computational and cognitive properties of systems that involve multiple individuals. He then turns to an analysis of learning or change in the organization of cognitive systems at several scales. Hutchins's conclusion illustrates the costs of ignoring the cultural nature of cognition and points to ways in which contemporary cognitive science can be transformed by new meanings and interpretations. |
Contents
Welcome Aboard | 31 |
Navigation as Computation | 55 |
The Implementation of Contemporary Pilotage | 117 |
The Organization of Team Performances | 175 |
Communication | 232 |
Navigation as a Context for Learning | 265 |
Learning in Context | 287 |
Organizational Learning | 317 |
Cultural Cognition | 353 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
actions activity alidade Anchor Detail artifacts beam bearings bearing record log behavior bridge Caroline Island chapter chart table chip log cognitive properties cognitive science cognitive system communication compass rose computation conceptual confirmation bias constraints constructed coordination course cultural deck direction distributed distributed cognition Dive Tower environment error etak island example external fathometer figure fix cycle functional systems gyrocompass hoey igation individual interaction internal knowledge landmark latitude learning lines of position magnetic manipulation mark mediating structure medium memory Micronesian modular move navigation team networks observations organization Palau pattern pelorus operator pilothouse pit sword plotted plotter Point Loma port pelorus problem produce quartermaster radar reference island relationship relative bearing representation represented scale Sea and Anchor sequence sequential ship ship's shoot social space speed star bearings step symbols task performer tion units voyage watchstander written procedure