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Studying Cognition in the Wild

Professor

Department of Cognitive Science
University of California
San Diego

 
  
 
 
 
 
 


 
Professor Hutchins retired in 2014. He remains available for consulting work, but he no longer supervises students.

Studying cognition in its natural habitat

I have spent my entire academic career trying to understand human cognition in social, cultural and material context. I was originally trained as a cognitive anthropologist. I believe that cultural practices are a key component of human cognition.

My early work concerned the relationships among language, culture, and thought. In 1975 and 1976, I conducted ethnographic research in the Trobriand Islands of Papua New Guinea. My focus was on reasoning in public litigation. (Culture and Inference, Harvard University Press, 1980).

As a postdoc, I constructed a model of traditional Micronesian navigation based mostly on published accounts of the navigators' practices.

Later, while employed by the US Navy, I used insights derived from first-hand ethnographic studies to build computer-based training systems for steam propulsion systems and for radar navigation. I then moved my observations to the navigation bridge and used that material to write my first attempt at a coherent statement of the principles of distributed cognition. (Cognition in the Wild, MIT Press, 1995).

Since 1989 my primary research sites have been in the world of commercial aviation.

 
 

 
CURRENT RESEARCH
 
 
             
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