Distributed and situated cognition (729G12)
Examination Fall 2016
This examination is taken as a take-home examination.
The examination is under normal circumstances only based on the written answer.
The take-home examination shall adhere to the following instructions.
All questions must be answered individually!
Always start a new page for each new question.
Answers for each question should be max approximately one page. Use 12 pt, “Times New
Roman” or similar. If you skip a question do not skip the page, instead write, “question not
answered”.
The exam is in total 30 points. For the grading “C” 18 points is minimum and for the grading
“A” 24 points is minimum.
Answers can be written in English or Swedish
Write your name and student-ID on each page, e.g. at the top or at the bottom.
Name the file <yourstudentID>distsitcog2016. (For example lisko123distsitcog2016). The file
should be in .doc-format or .docx-format since that will lead to a more efficient feedback
process.
Send it to [email protected] before January 4th 2017, 23:59.
(For information on Urkund see www.urkund.se/se/funktion.asp)
Do not write anything in your e-mail because it will not be read.
The file should be sent from your student-email-account.
Good luck!
Erik, Corinna, and Mattias
1. Explain Norman’s view on cognitive artifacts. Garbis criticizes Normans view.
Which are the most important points of this critique? What theoretical perspective
does Garbis, in your opinion, draw his critique from? Motivate your answer. 5p.
2. What does Charles Goodwin mean by professional vision and what aspects of this
professional vision does he emphasize? Relate his view on this to another
theoretical perspective you have encountered in the course literature, and discuss
similarities and differences between them. Do you think that “professional vision”
is a useful concept? Motivate you answer. 5p.
3. Describe the concept of an activity as used within Activity Theory, and describe
the hierarchical model of activities. Activity theory presents an alternative to innate
mental abilities. Describe this alternative and illustrate this alternative with a
concrete example. 5p.
4. Describe the main ideas of Kirsh and Maglios distinction between epistemic and
pragmatic actions. In what way are these ideas a contrast to traditional AI? In the
articles in the course literature these actions are discussed in relation to Tetris. Can
this distinction be used in more everyday situations? Will this require any changes
of the theory? Motivate your answer. 5p.
5. Describe Clark & Chalmers Extended Mind-hypothesis. Extended Mind share
aspects with Hutchins perspective on distributed cognition. Describe the aspects
for which these perspectives correspond, but also for which aspects you think they
differentiate. Motivate your answer. 5p.
6. Describe some of the different theoretical takes for an embodied perspective on
cognition, and how these can be contrasted to a more traditional computational
view of cognition. In his article Anderson relates embodied cognition to situated
cognition and suggests that they have some commonalities. Describe on which
point he thinks they differ. 5p.