ABSTRACT

In recent years, we have witnessed the rise of a contemporary approach to cognitive psychology known as 4E cognition. According to this ‘extracranial’ view of cognition, the mind is not ensconced in the head, but dynamically intertwined with a host of different entities, social as well as technological. The purpose of the present article is to raise a concern about 4E cognition. The concern is not about whether the mind is in fact extended, but about how this condition is currently portrayed in the 4E literature. It is argued that 4E scholars tend to paint an overly idealized picture of human–technology relations in which all entities are presumed to cooperate and collaborate. The article first describes the basic tenets of extended cognition and distributed cognition, two of the most thingly approaches in this new wave of cognitive psychology. It then proceeds to discuss the twin notions of cognition and representation and argues that it may be time to leave these concepts behind. Finally, it sketches out the so-called ‘dogma of harmony’ in the 4E literature and argues for the importance of making analytical room for conflictual human–technology relations. Two examples of such conflictual relations are provided: bad habits and deskilling.

抽象的

近年来，我们目睹了一种称为4E认知的当代认知心理学方法的兴起。根据这种“外部的”认知观点，头脑不是固守在头脑中，而是与许多不同的实体，社会和技术动态地交织在一起。本文的目的是引起人们对4E认知的关注。所关注的不是思想是否实际上已经扩展，而是当前在4E文献中如何描述这种情况。有人认为，4E学者倾向于对人与技术之间的关系描绘出过于理想化的景象，在这种景象中，所有实体都被假定为合作与协作。本文首先介绍了扩展认知和分布式认知的基本原理，这是这种新的认知心理学浪潮中最重要的两种方法。然后，它讨论了认知和表征的双重概念，并认为可能是时候抛弃这些概念了。最后，它勾勒了4E文献中所谓的“和谐法则”，并指出了为冲突的人与技术之间的关系留出分析空间的重要性。提供了这种冲突关系的两个示例：不良习惯和粗俗化。