Distributed and Embodied Cognition in Scientific Contexts

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About this Research Topic

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Background

It has been well established that proper, constitutive parts of distributive cognitive systems include the socio-cultural environment as well as the artifacts and instruments of collaborative scientific environment. The fundamental assumption underlying Distributed Cognition is that collaborating people, their artifacts and instruments are engaged in richly scaffolded, situational partnerships to enhance and reinvigorate their individual cognitive profiles, and to master sophisticated problem-solving that they might not be able to solve on their own.

On the one hand, Distributed Cognition seems to provide an appropriate theoretical context for understanding some state-of-the-art theories of situated socio-cultural cognition. On the other hand, it seems that Distributed Cognition is a theory that promises to explain the intricate details of scientific practices and representations. Amongst others, Ronald Giere has used dynamical systems theory and Distributed Cognition to account for scientific model making, and Nancy J. Nersessian and colleagues have endeavored to explain external representations in terms of distributed cognition. More recently, the account of distributed scientific cognition has been reinforced by theories of enculturation and social cognition under the Free Energy Principle (as spelt out by Karl Friston and colleagues).

Aside from classical examples such as traffic control, ship navigation and aeroplane cockpits, a distributed approach to cognition has been equally successful in investigations of collaborative practices in a number of different domains, such as cognitive ecologies and material culture, the nature of human agency and human memories and human-computer interaction. Interestingly, varieties of Distributed and Embodied cognition have been also used to explicate the scientific activity and external scientific and mathematical representations.

This special issue aims to explore the relevance and significance of Distributed Cognition in a variety of scientific contexts with a selection of state-of-the-art research papers on the topic. We invite submissions of high-quality papers describing original and significant work in all areas at the intersection of Distributed Cognition and scientific practices, including but not limited to:
• Application of Distributed Cognition to the study of scientific activity and methodology along the lines of preceding works of Giere, Nersessian, and others
• Constructing theories of Distributed Cognition from within the framework of recent theories of mind and cognition, such as prediction error minimization theory and free energy principle
• Historical roots of Distributed Cognition, especially in (but not limited to) the pragmatist tradition, such as works of C.S. Peirce, G. H. Mead etc.
• Applications of Distributed Cognition to Gibsonian view, e.g., theories of niche construction
• Distributed Cognition and mechanisms of enculturation
• Distributed Cognition and accounts of external scientific representation
• Distribute Cognition and social studies of science and technology
• Agile methodologies and software design in computer science
• Artificial Distributed Cognition
• Applications of Distributed Cognition to the science of consciousness
• Using Distributed Cognition to forge links between accounts of adaptive/social action/behavior and theories of the individual brain
• Theories of Team management and Group-think in science
• Reasoning, problem-solving and memory in distributed environments
• Personal identity, bundles and Distributed Cognition
• Flocking behavior, emergence and continuity and their applications
• Language, communication and gesture

Keywords: Embodied Cognition; Distributed Cognition; Distributed Scientific Cognition; Scientific Modelling; Social Cognition; Enculturation; Sociocultural Niche Construction

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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