EDITOR Allison Druin allisond@umiacs.umd.edu
School of Interactive Arts and Technology, Simon Fraser University | aantle@sfu.ca
When I first read Paul Dourish, I was intrigued and compelled to learn more about the nature of embodied cognition. I was also interested in finding ways to apply embodied cognition to my research in child-computer interaction—where goals often involve the facilitation of engaged and playful learning rather than supporting adult work practices. After reading several more books, numerous articles, and having many conversations with colleagues, I came to that familiar place in human computer interaction research where I asked, but how do I apply these ideas? I was reminded of a paper on physical affordances entitled, “But How, Donald, Tell Us How?” [ 1]. Only this time, it was “But how, Paul, tell us how to use ideas about embodiment in interaction design for children?”
The first answer to this question came up in cases in which embodied cognition was used as an analytic lens to view users’ interactions with existing products and systems. Consideration was given to a larger unit of analysis than a single mind; the social and physical environment, both computational and noncomputational, were scrutinized. However, I was not satisfied. I wanted to understand what embodied cognition meant for me as a designer and a design researcher. What were the consequences for design? This article presents some of my ideas on how embodiment matters to those who design children’s interactive technologies.
perspective on human cognition foregrounds the role of the body, physical activity, and lived experience in cognition. Put simply, embodied cognition emphasizes how the particulars of human bodies acting in complex physical, social, and cultural environments determine perceptual and cognitive structures, processes, and operations. In contrast to traditional views of cognition, an embodied approach suggests that humans should be considered first and foremost as active agents rather than as disembodied symbol processors.
This shift is an extremely important development, one that has been underappreciated in human computer interaction research in general and in child-computer interaction research in particular. Yet a wealth of developmental psychology and media-studies literature provides evidence for the importance of understanding the role of action and the environment in the development of children’s thinking skills. Jean Piaget began a long tradition when he suggested that cognitive structuring through schemata accommodation and assimilation requires both physical and mental actions [ 2]. More recently, social scientist Jane Healy argues for the importance of physicality in childhood. She suggests that children’s increased access to TV and video games reduces the amount of time they spend in physical, sensorial, and perceptual activities that foster awareness of relationships in the world, awareness that is crucial to their cognitive development [ 3]. Designers of digital media for children can benefit from understanding and supporting the ways in which physicality influences cognitive development. Whether interacting with computation through a mouse and keyboard, a tangible user interface, or a handheld device, an embodied perspective on cognition both broadens and changes the focus
[ 1] Djajadiningrat, T., K. Overbeeke, and S. Wensveen. “But how, Donald, tell us how? On the creation of meaning in interaction design through feedforward and inherent feedback.” Proceedings of DIS ’02, 285-291. New York: ACM Press, 2002.
[ 2] Piaget, J. The Origins of Intelligence in Children. New York: University Press, 1952.
[ 3] Healy, J. M. Failure to Connect: How Computers Affect Our Children’s Minds. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998.
Embodied Cognition and Children There has been a rethinking of the nature of cognition for more than 50 years in philosophy and about 15 in human computer interaction research. Embodiment means how the nature of a living entity’s cognition is shaped by the form of its physical manifestation in the world. An embodied
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