A group that I was a part of and others who I know are still a part of is the Cross Country Team. The cognitive system is the team as a whole, which is comprised of members who are working together to achieve the common goal of winning meets, or competitions, held during the season. A regularly performed task within our cognitive system is having practices to condition team members. Our desired end state is to become the best runners that we can and win our meets to represent our school team. The observed performance of our cognitive system can be explained by “the properties of these representations inside the system and the processes that operate” (Hutchins 266).
Representations in carrying out our task of having practices to train were internal and external. Internal representations included memories of previous practices and what specific warm-up stretches and workout routines were more successful for conditioning. Furthermore, our work ethic and cooperation as a team were internal representations that needed to be strengthened to reach our end goal. External representations included physical objects that aided in our ability to improve practices, such as developing and maintaining a written schedule of aspects of our running that we needed to work on such as finishing strong at the end of a race or running uphill or downhill.
Cognitive systems “coordinate transformations on representations in goal-seeking behavior” (Perry, 2003). Therefore, transformations of representational states are important to move closer to our desired end state. As more practices are held during the season, we are able to determine with better precision what the layout of future practices should be in order to maximize time and efficiency. We frequently update our written schedule of aspects of our running that we wish to work on, based upon team discussions at the end of every practice and meet. Coupling is determined by “how immediate a response is needed, and how much interaction is required for either clarification or persuasion” (Olson 422). Our team’s task of having daily practices to train is very tightly coupled, since there involves a number of face-to-face interactions among team members to negotiate the most effective and efficient practice to condition the team. Members coordinate with one another after practices and meets to develop future work routines to improve our team performance. This process of improving practices to reach our desired end state helped to strengthen team cooperation as a whole.
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I liked that you included work ethic and cooperation in your Cross Country Team's internal representation. It showed that you depend on more than individual memories, but also each other. And I thought it was interesting that your Cross Country Team seemed to focus more on internal representations, than external representations. I would have thought that the physical artifacts like schedules and equipment would have been really important in your type of cognitive system.
ReplyDeleteFollowing up on Ashley's comment, I also think your description of the internal representations was interesting. It seems like an individual's emotional/psychological state, and not just his knowledge, could also be considered an internal representation in this instance. The goal of practice is not simply to get the knowledge that "work ethic and team cooperation will help us win meets" into internal memory. (If that were the case, the coach would just need to gather the team once and tell them this, and the goal would be accomplished!) Practice is also needed to condition the athletes to improve their work ethic and cooperation from a psychological standpoint.
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