The psychology of memory, extended cognition, and socially distributed remembering
Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 9 (4):521-560 (2010)
Abstract
This paper introduces a new, expanded range of relevant cognitive psychological research on collaborative recall and social memory to the philosophical debate on extended and distributed cognition. We start by examining the case for extended cognition based on the complementarity of inner and outer resources, by which neural, bodily, social, and environmental resources with disparate but complementary properties are integrated into hybrid cognitive systems, transforming or augmenting the nature of remembering or decision-making. Adams and Aizawa, noting this distinctive complementarity argument, say that they agree with it completely: but they describe it as “a non-revolutionary approach” which leaves “the cognitive psychology of memory as the study of processes that take place, essentially without exception, within nervous systems.” In response, we carve out, on distinct conceptual and empirical grounds, a rich middle ground between internalist forms of cognitivism and radical anti-cognitivism. Drawing both on extended cognition literature and on Sterelny’s account of the “scaffolded mind” (this issue), we develop a multidimensional framework for understanding varying relations between agents and external resources, both technological and social. On this basis we argue that, independent of any more “revolutionary” metaphysical claims about the partial constitution of cognitive processes by external resources, a thesis of scaffolded or distributed cognition can substantially influence or transform explanatory practice in cognitive science. Critics also cite various empirical results as evidence against the idea that remembering can extend beyond skull and skin. We respond with a more principled, representative survey of the scientific psychology of memory, focussing in particular on robust recent empirical traditions for the study of collaborative recall and transactive social memory. We describe our own empirical research on socially distributed remembering, aimed at identifying conditions for mnemonic emergence in collaborative groups. Philosophical debates about extended, embedded, and distributed cognition can thus make richer, mutually beneficial contact with independently motivated research programs in the cognitive psychology of memory
Keywords
Categories
(categorize this paper)
PhilPapers/Archive ID
BARTPO-25
Revision history
Archival date: 2014-01-20
View upload history
View upload history

Radical Embodied Cognitive Science.Chemero, Anthony
Supersizing the Mind: Embodiment, Action, and Cognitive Extension.Clark, Andy (ed.)
Cognition in the Wild.Hutchins, Edwin
View all 105 references / Add more references

Dimensions of Integration in Embedded and Extended Cognitive Systems.Heersmink, Richard
Distributed Cognition and Memory Research: History and Current Directions.Michaelian, Kourken & Sutton, John
Extended Cognition & the Causal‐Constitutive Fallacy: In Search for a Diachronic and Dynamical Conception of Constitution.Kirchhoff, Michael D.
View all 54 citations / Add more citations
Added to PP index
2010-09-25
Total downloads
1,972 ( #484 of 37,116 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
186 ( #1,530 of 37,116 )
2010-09-25
Total downloads
1,972 ( #484 of 37,116 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
186 ( #1,530 of 37,116 )
How can I increase my downloads?
Monthly downloads since first upload
This graph includes both downloads from PhilArchive and clicks to external links.