PSY 355 Psychology & Media in the Digital Age This page was last modified on October 6, 2024

The 'Extended Mind" Hypothesis (Clark & Chalmers, 1998)

Citations in Google Scholar:  2,783 in 2015, 3,962 in 2018, 6,084 in 2021, 7,654 in 2023, 9,040 in 2024
 ~ 376,000 references in Google (2024)

Where is your mind?

Where does your mind end and your body begin?

Or, where does your body end and your mind begin?



Is your mind just your brain??? Is your mind "inside" your skull the way the brain is inside the skull?

Let's look at a few thought experiments and some research:



Feb 26, 2018 article at AEON Magazine online.


Scenario 1: Merleau-Ponty (1945/1962): The Blind Man with a Cane



Scenario 2: Bach-y-Rita's Work on Sensory Substitution and Neuroplasticity

Scenario #3: Geometrical Shape Rotation (taken from Clark & Chalmers, 1998)

Case 1: Watching a computer screen with geometrical shapes and figuring out how those shapes can fit together

Case 2: Watching a computer screen with the ability to change the orientation of the shapes and figuring out how those shapes fit together

Case 3: In the future, watching a computer screen with a neural implant that can change how cognition pictures the orientation of the shapes and figuring out how those shapes fit together.

Are these all examples of cognition? In Case 3 the implant helps the mind do exactly what it does in Case 1 (except faster).

But, how is Case 2 in which the manipulation on the screen changes the orientation of the shapes any different than Case 3 or Case 1?


Scenario #4: Brain-Computer Interfaces

• Extensive work is now underway to develop interfaces between the brain and a computer to allow individuals to do things with their thoughts that they cannot now do.

The brain implant that turns thoughts into text:  A new neural interface lets people type with their mind (Thompson & Bundell, 2021)

Restoration of Movement in Tetraplegic Patient (Ajiboye et al. (2017))

Where is the boundary between the skin and the skull?

Active Externalism
 

Consider in Scrabble how players use the tile holder to try alternative orderings of letters

Or, how sailors use a nautical slide rule to calculate speed, distance, or time traveled?

Or, how we use pen and pencil to carry out multiplication or long division (without a calculator!) 

     

What does this tell us?

   

The most crucial example of the mind's extension into the world comes in language

What about mind? Can this notion of active externalism be further advanced?


   

Case A: Mary Jones
 
Case B: Fred Smith & his notepad

What is the difference between Case A and Case B?

• Doctors performing surgery including the surgeon, anesthesiologist, primary nurse assistant, etc.
• Police officers or Marines approaching a dangerous location with the possibility of hostile fire
• Parents as they put their children to bed in the evening
• Players on a sports team like basketball

• Cognition can, therefore, be extended to reside within the group itself.

• As I increasingly rely upon active external couplings, my identity more and more resides not just IN me (my skull & skin) but BETWEEN me and those external entities with which I am closely connected.

• Reports of users of sensory substitutions (e.g., BrainPort V100) consistently note that the external device or technology "disappears" or becomes transparent.
  

Notes from Fr. Hevern

Historically, the pioneer American psychologist and philosopher, William James argued that the self has multiple facets including

• Material Self
  
• Social Self 
• Spiritual Self
• Pure "Ego"
  

The late Cornell University Prof. Ulric Neisser (d. 2012), one of the founders of cognitive psychology, also argued that the self understands itself in five ways (Neisser, 1988). He labeled these forms of self-knowledge as

• Ecological Self
  
• Interpersonal Self
  
• Extended Self
  
• Private Self
• Conceptual Self ("self-concept")
  

Questions to consider

• What forms of active externalisms do each of us use every day?

• Where are our memories stored?

• What tools do we use in order to get our jobs and lives accomplished?

• What media forms serve as parts of our extended selves?

We'll split into five groups and discuss these questions for about 10 minutes. In each group, one person needs to record and report on the answers that came up in the group.

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Cognitive Psychology of Human Multitasking {W}

(Wang et al., 2015)

• People frequently "multitask" across different forms of media at the same time.
  

• Laboratory experimental research tends to find deteriorating performance in multitask conditions, that is, lowered levels of cognitive performance or success and, even, exposure to life-threatening conditions

• Cognitive psychological research points to
  

• "Central bottleneck" problems
  

• "Limited capacity" theories

• "The Law of Less Work"
  

Focus of Analysis: What is involved when a human being tries to perform two tasks “in which one or both tasks utilize media technology” (p. 106)

 

Task Relations: How are these two tasks related to each other?	Task Inputs: How is task information presented to the user?	Task Outputs: Is any behavioral response required by the task(s)?	User Differences: Do differences in users affect the processing of & response to the task(s)?
Task Hierarchy Task Switch Task Relevance Shared Modality Task Contiguity	Information Modality Information Flow Emotional Content	Behavioral Responses Time Pressure	Personality styles, expertise & knowledge, etc.