Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Cognition and the Web: Extended, Transactive, or Scaffolded?

  • Original Research
  • Published:
Erkenntnis Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In the history of external information systems, the World Wide Web presents a significant change in terms of the accessibility and amount of available information. Constant access to various kinds of online information has consequences for the way we think, act and remember. Philosophers and cognitive scientists have recently started to examine the interactions between the human mind and the Web, mainly focussing on the way online information influences our biological memory systems. In this article, we use concepts from the extended cognition and distributed cognition frameworks and from transactive memory theory to analyse the cognitive relations between humans and the Web. We first argue that while neither of these approaches neatly capture the nature of human-Web interactions, both offer useful concepts to describe aspects of such interactions. We then conceptualize relations between the Web and its users in terms of cognitive integration, arguing that most current Web applications are not deeply integrated and are better seen as a scaffold for memory and cognition. Some highly personalised applications accessed on wearable computing devices, however, may already have the capacity for deep integration. Finally, we draw out some of the epistemic implications of our cognitive analysis.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. https://www.alexa.com/topsites.

  2. An interesting phenomenon is social bookmarking where different users can add, annotate and share bookmarks with other Web-users.

  3. A reviewer pointed out that contemporary Web-browsers (for example, Chrome) store bookmarked Webpages on the cloud and can therefore be accessed on any device, making access to bookmarked Webpages easier.

  4. The Pew Research Center (2011) shows that 53% of Americans use Wikipedia to look for information. According to Alexa (see: https://www.alexa.com/topsites), Wikipedia is the 5th most visited Webpage in the world and has a daily pageview per visitor of 3.3.

  5. Furthermore, students majoring in architecture, engineering, or the sciences use Wikipedia more often than students in the humanities (Head & Eisenberg 2010).

  6. http://www.imdb.com/help/show_leaf?personalrecommendations&ref_=tt_rec_lm.

  7. As a reviewer pointed out, mobile devices can potentially be accessed by others, resulting in privacy issues. For some users, this may lead to a reluctance to use their mobile device as an external memory system, at least when it concerns sensitive information (Smart et al. 2017a).

  8. This snippet is from https://answersingenesis.org and was ranked first for the featured snippet due to search engine optimisation.

References

  • Baehr, J. (2011). The inquiring mind: On intellectual virtues and virtue epistemology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Berners-Lee, T., et al. (2006). A framework for Web science. Foundations and Trends in Web Science,1(1), 1–130.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bolter, J. D., & Grusin, R. (1999). Remediation: Understanding new media. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carr, N. (2011). The shallows: What the Internet is doing to our brain. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, A. (1997). Being there: Putting brain, body and world back together again. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, A. (2001). Mindware: An introduction to the philosophy of cognitive science. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, A. (2008). Supersizing the mind: Embodiment, action, and cognitive extension. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Clark, A., & Chalmers, D. (1998). The extended mind. Analysis,58(1), 10–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clowes, R. W. (2015). Thinking in the cloud: The cognitive integration of cloud-based technology. Philosophy and Technology,28(2), 262–296.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Donald, M. (1991). Origins of the modern mind: Three stages in the evolution of culture and cognition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Erll, A., & Rigney, A. (Eds.). (2009). Mediation, remediation, and the dynamics of cultural memory. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fallis, D. (2008). Towards an epistemology of Wikipedia. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology,59(10), 1662–1674.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Halpin, H., Clark, A., & Wheeler, M. (2014). Towards a philosophy of the web: Representation, enaction, collective intelligence. In A. Monnin & H. Halpin (Eds.), Philosophical engineering: Toward a philosophy of the web (pp. 21–30). Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hargittai, E. (2010). Digital na(t)ives? Variation in Internet skills and uses among members of the “net generation”. Sociological Inquiry,80(1), 92–113.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harris, C. B, Keil, P. G., Sutton, J. & Barnier, A. J. (2010). Collaborative remembering: When can remembering with others be beneficial? In W. Christensen, E. Schier & J. Sutton (Eds.), Proceedings of the 9th conference of the Australasian Society for Cognitive Science (pp. 131–134).

  • Hayles, N. K. (2012). How we think: Contemporary media and technogenesis. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Head, A. J., & Eisenberg, M. B. (2010). How today’s college students use Wikipedia for course-related research. First Monday. https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v15i3.2830.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heersmink, R. (2015). Dimensions of integration in embedded and extended cognitive systems. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences,14(3), 577–598.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heersmink, R. (2016). The Internet, cognitive enhancement, and the values of cognition. Minds and Machines,26(4), 389–407.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heersmink, R. (2018). A virtue epistemology of the Internet: Search engines, intellectual virtues, and education. Social Epistemology,32(1), 1–12.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heidegger, M. (1962). Being and time. London: SCM.

    Google Scholar 

  • Henrich, J., Heine, S. J., & Norenzayan, A. (2010). The weirdest people in the world? Behavioral and Brain Sciences,33, 61–135.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoskins, A. (2009). The mediatisation of memory. In J. Garde-Hansen, A. Hoskins, & A. Reading (Eds.), Save as … digital memories (pp. 27–43). London: Palgrave.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Huebner, B. (2016). Transactive memory reconstructed: Rethinking Wegner’s research program. Southern Journal of Philosophy,54(1), 48–69.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hutchins, E. (1995). Cognition in the wild. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirsh, D. (2013). Embodied cognition and the magical future of interaction design. ACM Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction,20(1), 1–30.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, K., & Herndon, B. (2011). Transactive memory systems: Current issues and future directions. Organization Science,22(5), 1254–1265.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ludwig, D. (2015). Extended cognition and the explosion of knowledge. Philosophical Psychology,28(3), 355–368.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lynch, M. (2016). The Internet of us: Knowing more and understanding less in the age of big data. New York: W.W. Norton and Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Menary, R. (2007). Cognitive integration: Mind and cognition unbounded. Basingstoke: Palgrave McMillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Menary, R. (2010). Dimensions of mind. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences,9(4), 561–578.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Michaelian, K., & Arango-Muñoz, S. (2018). Collaborative memory knowledge: A distributed reliabilist perspective. In M. Meade, C. Harris, P. van Bergen, J. Sutton, & A. Barnier (Eds.), Collaborative remembering: Theories, research, applications (pp. 231–247). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Michaelian, K., & Sutton, J. (2013). Distributed cognition and memory research: History and current directions. Review of Philosophy and Psychology,4(1), 1–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, B., & Record, I. (2013). Justified belief in a digital age: On the epistemic implications of secret internet technologies. Episteme,10(2), 117–134.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, B., & Record, I. (2017). Responsible epistemic technologies: A social-epistemological analysis of autocompleted web search. New Media and Society,19(12), 1945–1963.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Norman, D. (1998). The invisible computer. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pan, B., et al. (2007). In Google we trust: Users’ decisions on rank, position, and relevance. Journal of Computer Mediated Communication,12(3), 801–823.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pew Research Center. (2011). Wikipedia, past and present. Retrieved from: http://www.pewinternet.org/files/old-media//Files/Reports/2011/PIP_Wikipedia.pdf.

  • Pew Research Center. (2015). Technology device ownership: 2015. Retrieved from: http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/10/29/technology-device-ownership-2015/.

  • Rheingold, H. (2012). Net smart: How to thrive online. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rowlands, M. (2009). Extended cognition and the mark of the cognitive. Philosophical Psychology,22(1), 1–19.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simpson, T. W. (2012). Evaluating Google as an epistemic tool. Metaphilosophy,43(4), 426–445.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smart, P. (2012). The web-extended mind. Metaphilosophy,43(4), 446–663.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smart, P. (2017). Extended cognition and the Internet: A review of current issues and controversies. Philosophy & Technology,30(3), 357–390.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smart, P., Clowes, R., & Heersmink, R. (2017a). Minds online: The interface between Web science, cognitive science, and the philosophy of mind. Foundations and Trends in Web Science,6(1–2), 1–234.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smart, P., Heersmink, R., & Clowes, R. (2017b). The cognitive ecology of the Internet. In S. Cowley & F. Vallée-Tourangeau (Eds.), Cognition beyond the brain: Computation, interactivity and human artifice (pp. 251–282). Dordrecht: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Smart, P., & Shadbolt, N. (2018). The World Wide Web. In J. Chase & D. Coady (Eds.), Routledge handbook of applied epistemology. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sparrow, B., Liu, J., & Wegner, D. M. (2011). Google effects on memory: Cognitive consequences of having information at our fingertips. Science,333(6043), 776–778.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sterelny, K. (2010). Minds: Extended or scaffolded? Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences,9(4), 465–481.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sutton, J. (2006). Distributed cognition: Domains and dimensions. Pragmatics & Cognition,14(2), 235–247.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sutton, J. (2010). Exograms and interdisciplinarity: History, the extended mind and the civilizing process. In R. Menary (Ed.), The extended mind (pp. 189–225). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Sutton, J. (2015a). Scaffolding memory: Themes, taxonomies, puzzles. In L. Bietti & C. B. Stone (Eds.), Contextualising human memory: An interdisciplinary approach to how individuals and groups remember their pasts. London: Routledge.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Sutton, J. (2015b). Remembering as public practice: Wittgenstein, memory, and distributed cognitive ecologies. In D. Moyal-Sharrock, A. Coliva, & V. Munz (Eds.), Mind, language, and action (pp. 409–443). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sutton, J., Harris, C. B., Keil, P., & Barnier, A. J. (2010). The psychology of memory, extended cognition, and socially distributed remembering. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences,9(4), 521–560.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Theiner, G. (2013). Transactive memory systems: A mechanistic analysis of emergent group memory. Review of Philosophy and Psychology,4(1), 65–89.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tollefson, D., Dale, R., & Paxton, A. (2013). Alignment, transactive memory, and collective cognitive systems. Review of Philosophy and Psychology,4(1), 49–64.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Deursen, A., & van Dijk, J. (2009). Using the Internet: Skill related problems in users’ online behavior. Interacting with Computers,21(5–6), 393–402.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ward, A. F. (2013). Supernormal: How the Internet is changing our memories and our minds. Psychological Inquiry,24(4), 341–348.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wegner, D. M. (1986). Transactive memory: A contemporary analysis of the group mind. In B. Mullen & G. R. Goethals (Eds.), Theories of group behaviour (pp. 185–208). New York: Springer-Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wegner, D. M. (1995). A computer network model of human transactive memory. Social Cognition,13(3), 319–339.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wegner, D., Erber, R., & Raymond, R. (1991). Transactive memory in close relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,61(6), 923–929.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wegner, D. M., Giuliano, T., & Hertel, P. T. (1985). Cognitive interdependence in close relationships. In W. J. Ickes (Ed.), Compatible and incompatible relationships (pp. 253–276). New York: Springer-Verlag.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, R., & Clark, A. (2009). How to situate cognition: Letting nature take its course. In P. Robbins & M. Aydede (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of situated cognition (pp. 55–77). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zagzebski, L. (1996). Virtues of the mind: An inquiry into the nature of virtue and the ethical foundations of knowledge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Politics and Philosophy, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia

    Richard Heersmink

  2. Department of Cognitive Science, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia

    John Sutton

Authors
  1. Richard Heersmink
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. John Sutton
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Richard Heersmink.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Heersmink, R., Sutton, J. Cognition and the Web: Extended, Transactive, or Scaffolded?. Erkenn 85, 139–164 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10670-018-0022-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10670-018-0022-8

Search

Navigation