ABSTRACT
Cognitive theories are central to explaining patient work because comprehension, memory, and other cognitive processes are an important part of this work. This chapter provides a selective overview of cognitive theories that have guided research on patient work. After describing theories of individual cognition, the chapter focuses on distributed cognition theories because patient work, like much complex work, is accomplished by individuals interacting with each other and the environment to accomplish shared goals. Whereas distributed cognition approaches have focused on clinicians’ work in health care, the present chapter describes frameworks and example studies that extend this general approach to analyzing patient work in the home, focusing on older adults’ self-care.
