Preface: Distributed Cognition and Educational Practice

Abstract

Traditionally, cognition has been treated as residing in the head, as being a property of the individual mind. To a large extent, current psychological and educational practice is founded upon this conception of cognition. Nevertheless, in recent years and in cognitive traditions such as educational psychology and cognitive science it has been advocated that cognition does not reside only in the head. Rather, it is suggested that cognition extends beyond the skin, essentially being distributed along two main dimensions; material and social. Assuming that an individual is performing a certain task, the material dimension of the distribution refers to the incorporation of all kinds of mental and physical artifacts in which cognition is encapsulated. On the other hand, the social dimension of the distribution of cognition refers to the involvement of social others who provide assistance in many ways during task execution by functioning as cognitive resources