Sharing Representations by Building Cognitive Niches

Authors: L. Magnani and E. Bardone  

Humans continuously delegate and distribute cognitive functions to the environment to lessen their limits. They build models, representations, and other various mediating  structures, that are thought to be good to think. In doing these,  humans are engaged in a process of cognitive niche construction. In  this sense, we argue that a cognitive niche emerges from a network of  continuous interplays between individuals and the environment, in  which people alter and modify the environment by mimetically  externalizing fleeting thoughts, private ideas, etc., into external  supports. Through mimetic activities humans create external semiotic  anchors that are the result of a process in which concepts, ideas,  and thoughts are projected onto external structure. Once concepts and  thoughts are externalized and projected, new chances and ways of  inferring come up from the blend. For cognitive niche construction  may also contribute to make available a great portion of knowledge  that otherwise would remain simply unexpressed or unreachable. This  can turn to be useful especially for all those situations that  require to transmit and share knowledge, information, and, more  generally, cognitive resources.