文档介绍：AI & Soc (2010) 25:387–400
DOI -010-0267-5
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Socially distributed cognition in loosely coupled systems
Mark Perry
Received: 10 January 2009 / Accepted: 20 December 2009 / Published online: 20 January 2010
Ó Springer-Verlag London Limited 2010
Abstract Distributed cognition provides a theoretical At the same time, the sorts of problems that it has examined
framework for the analysis of data from socio-technical are tightly defined (., there are clearly articulated and
systems within a problem-solving framework. While the specific goals), so that the problem-solving agents are aware
approach has been applied in tightly constrained activity of what the state of the final problem resolution will be. This
domains, composed of well-structured problems and highly is important and groundbreaking work for understanding
organised infrastructures, little is known about its use in human behaviour and thinking ‘in action’. However, many
other forms of activity systems. In this paper, we explore problem-solving situations are not so well structured and
how distributed cognition could be applied in less well- resource-delimited. This includes settings in which prob-
constrained settings, with ill-structured problems and lem-solving is distributed over technical, social and
anised resource sets, critically reflecting on anisational systems that do not have well-defined
using data from a field study. The findings suggest that the boundaries, so that putational structures may
use of distributed cognition in an augmented form can be be employed, or where the problem-solving resources
useful in the analysis of a wide range of activity systems in available to these systems may dynamically change: agents
loosely coupled settings. can co-opt a range of tools into their work and new agents
may be introduced into the system. Similarly, there are
Keywords Social interaction anisational problem-solving situations in which the problem is itself