This book argues against reductionist accounts of human cognition and proposes a sociocultural perspective, which moves beyond the isolated individual. It suggests that “mediated action” and cultural tools shape cognitive processes and can explain how they are organized. The book argues that, in many human endeavours, the outcomes we are interested in are not determined by the information-processing ability of the individual, but by countless forces in the environment.
Keywords: reductionism, human cognition, mediated action, human endeavours, cognitive processes, environment
Print publication date: 1997 | Print ISBN-13: 9780195117530 |
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: March 2012 | DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195117530.001.0001 |