Artefactual Intelligence: The Development and Use of Cognitively Congenial Artefacts
(2003) In Lund University Cognitive Studies 105.- Abstract
- How can tools help structure tasks to make them cognitively easier to perform? How do artefacts, and our strategies for using them, develop over time in cognitively beneficial ways? These are two of the main questions that are explored in the five papers collected in this thesis.
The first paper details an ethnographic study conducted on people cooking in their homes. The study is a first pass over the issues and focuses, in particular, on how people handle timing constraints, use the spatial layout of objects to encode information, and how tools in the working environment are adapted and appropriated.
The paper that follows outlines a number of principal ways in which artefacts can reduce the... (More) - How can tools help structure tasks to make them cognitively easier to perform? How do artefacts, and our strategies for using them, develop over time in cognitively beneficial ways? These are two of the main questions that are explored in the five papers collected in this thesis.
The first paper details an ethnographic study conducted on people cooking in their homes. The study is a first pass over the issues and focuses, in particular, on how people handle timing constraints, use the spatial layout of objects to encode information, and how tools in the working environment are adapted and appropriated.
The paper that follows outlines a number of principal ways in which artefacts can reduce the cognitive burdens of performing routine tasks. The starting point for the paper is that artefacts transform the structure of the tasks in which they figure. The paper details a number of such transformations and outlines their cognitive consequences.
The third paper introduces the notion of ’cognitive biographies’ and relates the cognitive history of a large shelf of spices: a history of the evolving artefact that focuses on physical changes in the object and the cognitive corollaries of those changes. It is argued that the history of a task may be a necessary part in understanding the current use of an artefact. Furthermore, if we subscribe to a situated view of cognition, then the genesis, evolution and adjustment to cognitively significant physical structures ought to be an essential part of a complete account of cognition.
The fourth paper takes a longer-term historical perspective and traces the evolution of firearms from the middle ages to the present day and analyses the changing cognitive demands of using this class of artefacts.
The topic of the fifth and final paper of the thesis (a co-authored effort) is the perennial problem of self-control. A basic model of the domain of self-control is provided and a range of suggestions for how modern sensor and computing technology might be of use in scaffolding and augmenting our self-control abilities is presented. The proposed solutions are founded on the possibilities of precommitment, and explication of self-knowledge, afforded by these new technologies. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/466097
- author
- de Léon, David LU
- supervisor
- opponent
-
- Prof Costall, Alan, University of Portsmouth
- organization
- publishing date
- 2003
- type
- Thesis
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- pervasive computing, affective computing, persuasive computing, Psychology, Psykologi, computer-mediated extrospection, precommitment, self-control, situated cognition, distributed motivation, cognitive ethnography, distributed cognition, cognitive biographies, redesign, task–artefact cycle, artefact evolution, artefact design, task structure, cognitive task, cognitive congeniality, artefactual intelligence, cognitive artefacts, task environment, tools, Cognition, artefacts, ubiquitous computing
- in
- Lund University Cognitive Studies
- volume
- 105
- pages
- 197 pages
- publisher
- Department of Cognitive Science, Lund University
- defense location
- Room 104, Kungshuset, Lund
- defense date
- 2003-10-13 13:15:00
- external identifiers
-
- other:ISRN: LUHFDA/HFKO-1013-SE
- ISSN
- 1101-8453
- ISBN
- 91-974741-1-8
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- additional info
- Article: de Léon, D. (2003). ”Actions, artefacts and cognition: an ethnography of cooking.” Lund University Cognitive Studies, 104. Article: de Léon, D. (2002). ”Cognitive task transformations.” Cognitive Systems Research, 3(3), pp. 449--459. Article: de Léon, D. (2003). ”The cognitive biographies of things.” Lund University Cognitive Studies, 103. Article: de Léon, D. (1999). ”Building thought into things.” Proceedings of the 3rd European Conference on Cognitive Science, pp. 37--47. Article: Hall, L., de Léon, D., & Johansson, P. (2002). ”The future of self-control: distributed motivation and computer-mediated extrospection.” Lund University Cognitive Studies, 95.
- id
- e0f1c42e-3b07-4628-8f03-2e41b8b9f1c7 (old id 466097)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 16:05:52
- date last changed
- 2019-05-21 20:42:19
@phdthesis{e0f1c42e-3b07-4628-8f03-2e41b8b9f1c7,
abstract = {{How can tools help structure tasks to make them cognitively easier to perform? How do artefacts, and our strategies for using them, develop over time in cognitively beneficial ways? These are two of the main questions that are explored in the five papers collected in this thesis.<br/><br>
<br/><br>
The first paper details an ethnographic study conducted on people cooking in their homes. The study is a first pass over the issues and focuses, in particular, on how people handle timing constraints, use the spatial layout of objects to encode information, and how tools in the working environment are adapted and appropriated.<br/><br>
<br/><br>
The paper that follows outlines a number of principal ways in which artefacts can reduce the cognitive burdens of performing routine tasks. The starting point for the paper is that artefacts transform the structure of the tasks in which they figure. The paper details a number of such transformations and outlines their cognitive consequences.<br/><br>
<br/><br>
The third paper introduces the notion of ’cognitive biographies’ and relates the cognitive history of a large shelf of spices: a history of the evolving artefact that focuses on physical changes in the object and the cognitive corollaries of those changes. It is argued that the history of a task may be a necessary part in understanding the current use of an artefact. Furthermore, if we subscribe to a situated view of cognition, then the genesis, evolution and adjustment to cognitively significant physical structures ought to be an essential part of a complete account of cognition.<br/><br>
<br/><br>
The fourth paper takes a longer-term historical perspective and traces the evolution of firearms from the middle ages to the present day and analyses the changing cognitive demands of using this class of artefacts.<br/><br>
<br/><br>
The topic of the fifth and final paper of the thesis (a co-authored effort) is the perennial problem of self-control. A basic model of the domain of self-control is provided and a range of suggestions for how modern sensor and computing technology might be of use in scaffolding and augmenting our self-control abilities is presented. The proposed solutions are founded on the possibilities of precommitment, and explication of self-knowledge, afforded by these new technologies.}},
author = {{de Léon, David}},
isbn = {{91-974741-1-8}},
issn = {{1101-8453}},
keywords = {{pervasive computing; affective computing; persuasive computing; Psychology; Psykologi; computer-mediated extrospection; precommitment; self-control; situated cognition; distributed motivation; cognitive ethnography; distributed cognition; cognitive biographies; redesign; task–artefact cycle; artefact evolution; artefact design; task structure; cognitive task; cognitive congeniality; artefactual intelligence; cognitive artefacts; task environment; tools; Cognition; artefacts; ubiquitous computing}},
language = {{eng}},
publisher = {{Department of Cognitive Science, Lund University}},
school = {{Lund University}},
series = {{Lund University Cognitive Studies}},
title = {{Artefactual Intelligence: The Development and Use of Cognitively Congenial Artefacts}},
volume = {{105}},
year = {{2003}},
}