ABSTRACT
The model of distributed cognition or cognitive ecology takes its inspiration from Edwin Hutchins's ground-breaking book Cognition in the Wild. Hutchins argues for the study of 'human cognition in its natural habitat – the material and social surrounds that enable and constrain thought: Humans create their cognitive powers by creating the environments in which they exercise those powers. Hutchins argues for the study of 'human cognition in its natural habitat – the material and social surrounds that enable and constrain thought: Humans create their cognitive powers by creating the environments in which they exercise those powers. Thus, the model of 'distributed cognition' posits that a complex activity such as performance is spread or smeared across resources such as attention, perception and memory; the experience of training as it is sedimented in the body; social structures; and the material environment. Distributed cognition predicts different ways of stretching across environments, social structures, skilled agents and training, rather than treating non-traditional modes of theatre.
