ABSTRACT
The boundaries of units of analysis have been expanding in many areas of cognitive science for some time, as researchers transition to units defined in terms of dynamic patterns of correlation across elements rather than in terms of the inherent properties of the elements. To speak of cognitive ecology is to employ an obvious metaphor, that cognitive systems are in some specific way like biological systems. In particular, it points to the web of mutual dependence among the elements of an ecosystem. Far from being free from the influences of culture, private reflection is a deeply cultural practice that draws on and is enacted in coordination with rich cultural resources. The focus of intellectual attention is already shifting to the relations among action, interaction, and conceptualization. Human cognitive activity will increasingly be seen to be profoundly situated, social, embodied, and richly multimodal. The products of interaction accumulate not only in the brain but throughout the cognitive ecology.
