**2. The distributed cognition hypothesis**

2 Current Topics in Children's Learning and Cognition

that Acerola told his version of the story?

interchange between person and environment.

territories and eliminate possible or real enemies.

conditions which outline many events that we witness nowadays.

in Acerola's narrative there was still a great lord who wanted to be the biggest leader of all the neighborhood, and for this aim he sent agents he trusted to govern the conquered

Acerola's explanation reveals that he has clear in his mind that the Portuguese Royal Family had to scape to Brazil because of territorial dispute and power interests in 19th century, but we cannot ensure if he knows that, as he "repeats" the teacher's story, he talks about Napoleon, and not about some druglord; and about Europe, not Rio de Janeiro. In other words, by now we cannot be sure that Acerola understood that the invasions and contentions of the 19th century did not happen in the same terms, motivations and

This chapter is about Acerola's speech, and the learning questions it arises: can we assert that Acerola really learned the teacher's lesson? What criteria should we employ to say that he learned it or not? If he only had repeated the teacher's words, this could mean learning? To what extent the interference of his previous knowledge about social problems in Rio over those historical facts ceases to be learning and starts to be free interpretation? And as to the map, which was a didactic artefact for both, the teacher and Acerola: is it the same object in both narratives, or could it be, respectively, a map of Western world and afterwards a map of Rio de Janeiro? Or could it be a third thing whose existence lasted only during the time

Whatever the answers we offer to these questions, they do not belie the fact that Acerola actively interacted not only with the contents expressed by the teacher in such a way to deeply alter them, but he also changed the object around which the lesson was taught – the map. Therefore, our answers must take into account his important agentic actions over the classroom setting, and the fact that these actions are closely related to his degree of learning.

To argue about these issues, this chapter aims to present the theoretical basis for observing learning as an agentic accomplishment based on a two-way affectment between the learner and the environment, and as an "adaptive reorganization of a complex system" (Hutchins, 1995, p. 289). As we define this theoretical basis, we need to raise three important criteria in order to not only discuss issues brought up on the observation of Acerola's actions in the classroom, but also establish how we can adjust this concept of learning to institutional terms: what is the view of cognition which allows us to recognize learning not only as internalization of concepts but also an action over the environment; what is the constitution of the learning environment which allows this twofold relationship; through which means it is possible to observe the didactic artifacts found in this environment, and how they contribute and are representative for learning as a cognitive action of constitutive

This three criteria lead us to observe cognition in a distributed fashion, in order to postulate that the use of the environment in the cognitive elaboration does enhances cognitive action,

through the access to more resources available than the neural apparatus.

The Distributed Cognition Hypothesis (Clark and Chalmers, 1998; Hutchins, 1995, 2000; Sinha, 2005, 2010; Bardone, 2011, among others) brings the idea that the continuity among brain, body and the environment structures cognition. Following this premise, studies on distributed cognition are concerned about identifying and describing cognitive processes in terms of the relationship between person and environment.

The works affiliated to this hypothesis propose the rupture of the boundaries between internal and external representations and domains of experience, and generate new prospects for the view of what cognition is: no longer biased to the internal or the external

factors which compose it, but requiring mutual and constitutive relationships between these domains (Zhang and Patel, 2006; Franks, 2011), which are evinced through cognitive processes.

Learning in Cognitive Niches 5

7. Aid processibility by limiting abstraction.

forms of relationship with our co-specifics.

cultural and institutional realms:

minimization.

getaway in 1808.

8. Anchor and structure cognitive behaviour without conscious awareness.

9. Determine decision making strategies through accuracy maximization and effort

All the tasks stressed above are useful for studies on Education and learning. For example, the first one seems to be the main purpose of writing in a broad sense: they are "collective memory banks" (Donald, 1991, p. 311), which help us deal with the need for quick calculi, and retain and transmit information and knowledge. The map used in Acerola's (and the teacher's, we need to say) History lesson fits many of them, including 2: when Acerola employed the map of the 19th century's Western World as if it could portray the reality of 21st century's Rio de Janeiro (hills instead of countries and druglords instead of kings and emperors), he saved the students and himself from mentally launching themselves towards a space and time which they did not participate. So he liberated their minds for the important ideas of the lesson: the circumstances which led to the Portuguese Royal family

The duty of recognizing how external representations can contribute for a satisfactory learning task can be better accomplished if every cognitive action is done with clear purposes. They define not only conceptual choices, but also the perception of the objects and their properties, the facts that occur in learning settings, the quality of the use of the features proposed by Zhang and Patel, and, since other people are part of the environment, the ways that the person will interpret the actions of his/her co-specifics. In this sense, goals, and also the problems that must be faced in order to fulfil them, are a kind of an external regulation which structures our actions, conceptualizations and joint commitments (Tummolini and Castelfranchi, 2006; Carassa, Colombetti and Morganti, 2008). Therefore, we can say that our cognition is essentially normatized by these features; normativity is present in the selection of the functions and boundaries of the environment, the perception of its features and the

Normativity, materialized in the goals for cognitive actions, is thus seen as a structuring factor of our way of thinking and social life as well (Tummolini and Castelfranchi, 2006). The assumption of normativity in these terms brings benefits not only to the study of the human being and his basic perceptual and conceptual experiences, but also to the social,

"In the continuist model of nature and culture [...], cultural norms do not have necessarily intentional or mentalist origins. They can arise from the phylogenetic and ontogenetic readiness of well-adapted beings to learn and use social forms and regularities as a basis for inference and action, which ends up loading them with a

Normativity can be found in high-level cognitive action (Schmidt, Rakoczy and Tomasello, 2011), and so as in Acerola's speech. He is doubly regulated from the relationships between him and the teacher, on the one hand, and between him and the students, on the other hand.

normative weight" (Kaufmann and Clément, 2007, p. 10).

The structural connections between species and environment are basically justified by the need to access extra material and symbolic resources that cannot be found in the brain, in order to accomplish the cognitive task posited to the person. The possibility of implementing these connections is recognized as an evolutionary feat of the *Homo sapiens* and some other species, and it exists for the fact that the complexity of our neural system sanctions the activity of incorporating features not foreseen by the genetics. This property demands the search for environmental artefacts in order to create, acquire, manipulate, and storage information and knowledge, to fulfil specific purposes of cognitive action and make correct and suitable decisions.

The ideas about the nature of cognition in an extended and distributed perspective bring, as a real challenge, the need to investigate the boundaries of the units of analysis in studies of cognition, and the set of mechanisms involved in cognitive processes (Hutchins, 2000). These two axes of investigation on cognition must take into account all domains of human existence, which are now seen not in an atomistic fashion, but as an integrated universe. They are respectively related to the concepts of cognitive niches and affordances, hence the importance to take into consideration these two constructs in the study of cognition and settings where cognitive processes and actions are at stake.

In order to do this we assume the non-previous ontological existence of information and features in the environment, because they cannot be found outside the cognizing field. Rather, the emergence of these features is associated to our comprehension that the identification of a given property of an object (which can be found in several other objects) is related to a particular use that we make of it (Bardone, 2011). According to this, it is possible to assert that the very perceptual detection of an object and its properties is constituted by the goals of physical and cognitive actions which justify its presence in that environment. In other words, we will not see anything in an object if it is not included in the universe of action possibilities in a given domain. We will not even see (in a perceptual sense) this object.

The constituents of the external domains can assume several and different tasks in cognitive construction. They were summarized in Zhang and Patel (2006, p. 335) and are transcripted below:


7. Aid processibility by limiting abstraction.

4 Current Topics in Children's Learning and Cognition

correct and suitable decisions.

settings where cognitive processes and actions are at stake.

processes.

below:

directly

visible and sustainable.

factors which compose it, but requiring mutual and constitutive relationships between these domains (Zhang and Patel, 2006; Franks, 2011), which are evinced through cognitive

The structural connections between species and environment are basically justified by the need to access extra material and symbolic resources that cannot be found in the brain, in order to accomplish the cognitive task posited to the person. The possibility of implementing these connections is recognized as an evolutionary feat of the *Homo sapiens* and some other species, and it exists for the fact that the complexity of our neural system sanctions the activity of incorporating features not foreseen by the genetics. This property demands the search for environmental artefacts in order to create, acquire, manipulate, and storage information and knowledge, to fulfil specific purposes of cognitive action and make

The ideas about the nature of cognition in an extended and distributed perspective bring, as a real challenge, the need to investigate the boundaries of the units of analysis in studies of cognition, and the set of mechanisms involved in cognitive processes (Hutchins, 2000). These two axes of investigation on cognition must take into account all domains of human existence, which are now seen not in an atomistic fashion, but as an integrated universe. They are respectively related to the concepts of cognitive niches and affordances, hence the importance to take into consideration these two constructs in the study of cognition and

In order to do this we assume the non-previous ontological existence of information and features in the environment, because they cannot be found outside the cognizing field. Rather, the emergence of these features is associated to our comprehension that the identification of a given property of an object (which can be found in several other objects) is related to a particular use that we make of it (Bardone, 2011). According to this, it is possible to assert that the very perceptual detection of an object and its properties is constituted by the goals of physical and cognitive actions which justify its presence in that environment. In other words, we will not see anything in an object if it is not included in the universe of action

possibilities in a given domain. We will not even see (in a perceptual sense) this object.

The constituents of the external domains can assume several and different tasks in cognitive construction. They were summarized in Zhang and Patel (2006, p. 335) and are transcripted

4. Support perceptual operators that can recognize features easily and make inferences

6. Stop time and support perceptual rehearsal to make invisible and transient information

1. Provide short-term or long-term memory aids so that memory load can be reduced. 2. Provide information that can be directly perceived and used such that little effortful

processing is needed to interpret and formulate the information explicitly. 3. Provide knowledge and skills that are unavailable from internal representations.

5. Change the nature of a task by generating more efficient action sequences.


All the tasks stressed above are useful for studies on Education and learning. For example, the first one seems to be the main purpose of writing in a broad sense: they are "collective memory banks" (Donald, 1991, p. 311), which help us deal with the need for quick calculi, and retain and transmit information and knowledge. The map used in Acerola's (and the teacher's, we need to say) History lesson fits many of them, including 2: when Acerola employed the map of the 19th century's Western World as if it could portray the reality of 21st century's Rio de Janeiro (hills instead of countries and druglords instead of kings and emperors), he saved the students and himself from mentally launching themselves towards a space and time which they did not participate. So he liberated their minds for the important ideas of the lesson: the circumstances which led to the Portuguese Royal family getaway in 1808.

The duty of recognizing how external representations can contribute for a satisfactory learning task can be better accomplished if every cognitive action is done with clear purposes. They define not only conceptual choices, but also the perception of the objects and their properties, the facts that occur in learning settings, the quality of the use of the features proposed by Zhang and Patel, and, since other people are part of the environment, the ways that the person will interpret the actions of his/her co-specifics. In this sense, goals, and also the problems that must be faced in order to fulfil them, are a kind of an external regulation which structures our actions, conceptualizations and joint commitments (Tummolini and Castelfranchi, 2006; Carassa, Colombetti and Morganti, 2008). Therefore, we can say that our cognition is essentially normatized by these features; normativity is present in the selection of the functions and boundaries of the environment, the perception of its features and the forms of relationship with our co-specifics.

Normativity, materialized in the goals for cognitive actions, is thus seen as a structuring factor of our way of thinking and social life as well (Tummolini and Castelfranchi, 2006). The assumption of normativity in these terms brings benefits not only to the study of the human being and his basic perceptual and conceptual experiences, but also to the social, cultural and institutional realms:

"In the continuist model of nature and culture [...], cultural norms do not have necessarily intentional or mentalist origins. They can arise from the phylogenetic and ontogenetic readiness of well-adapted beings to learn and use social forms and regularities as a basis for inference and action, which ends up loading them with a normative weight" (Kaufmann and Clément, 2007, p. 10).

Normativity can be found in high-level cognitive action (Schmidt, Rakoczy and Tomasello, 2011), and so as in Acerola's speech. He is doubly regulated from the relationships between him and the teacher, on the one hand, and between him and the students, on the other hand.

They both at the same time compel him to built a kind of discourse which satisfies his didactic necessities: to minimally repeat what was said by the teacher, selecting the facts which defined the fugue of the Royal Family to Brazil, and accomplish this task in conditions to say things which can be meaningful to the students. To do this, he accesses the previous knowledge related to their own space and time, and leads them to understand what motivated facts occurred in another space and time. He could not be successful in his enterprise if he had not taken this twofold goal into account.

Learning in Cognitive Niches 7

with more accuracy what components are desirable and what variables must be observed

The definition of the classroom as a cognitive niche, taking into account all the variables delineated above, can help to create for the students an atmosphere auspicious for their success in school, because it opens space for a reliable observation of issues, processes and artifacts associated to learning, and for a specific study of the school environment, which is a setting whose features and behaviors are already known by learners and school agents.

These actions take, as a core point, the student's cognition and knowledge as constitutive features of every learning accomplishment. Therefore, if we seek to understand the basis of the cognitive actions of the students, we will be able to perceive, from how they think, who they are, instead of establishing in advance who they will be, and from this prescribe how they learn – a criticism posed by many authors who problematize the institutionalized learning and meaning construction (Walkerdine, 1988; McDermott, 1993; Lave, 1993; Sinha,

In this chapter we are focusing on the cognitive niche as a setting constructed through a dynamics related to the understanding and engagement in interactions wherein intersubjectivity negotiations, normative crossings and possibilities of re-semiotization to solve problems of meaning (and recreate meanings as well) are at stake. It can help us assume cognition in a situated becoming, where things constitute an intersubjective flow of negotiation and (re)semiotization of the structuring features of our cognitive construals of

In the History classroom niche that we are observing, two different events unfolded relatively to the goals of each one, to the learning conditions of each information, and from the establishment of who talks and who listens – since both exercised an agency over the cognitive processes that take place in that setting. In both cases, the niche remained the same as to its basic constraints, but each event made it work under different conditions, which

When the teacher was the keynote speaker, the intersubjectivity conditions were defined in advance and not negociated; rather, they were established in such a way that the students had to strive to transport themselves to the space-time depicted by her. Their previous knowledge was not accessed, because the teacher did not fulfill the task to bring information and contents of their everyday lives to the semiotic construcion in the classroom setting. The result was that there were free associations and a few actions of re-semiotization of material and symbolic objects to meet the needs of understanding. The possibilities of learning were

However, when Acerola was the keynote speaker, some diferences in the niche were observable: there was more intersubjective negotiation, promoted by the fact that Acerola and his colleagues dealed with the same everyday reality, thus he had the chance to bring and add common knowledge to the semiotic construction in the classroom, and helped them

understand the contents of the lesson. This could have helped him fulfill his task.

were caused by the change of roles that the contingencies determined.

for a learning task to be accomplished.

1999, among many others).

the world.

not favored.
