External Working Memory and the Amount of Distributed Cognition

While processing of a large number of (visuo-spatial) items are oftentimes necessary for ongoing cognitive activities, the biological working memory can process only about four items of information. Then it is a mystery how we cope with complex world situations. This is the paradox of working memory. This paradox is solved once we view the external features of the world as constituting part of working memory. Part of working memory is externally distributed if the external features of the world constitute part of material supervenience base of working memory. Tversky’s Spractions (2010), or actions onto the world, are the key to offload of cognition, because they redirect the attention at the working memory level only to relevant aspects of the world. To see how people use spractions to offload working memory load, subjects were asked to build a Lego block in front of a camera. Using cognitive ethnography, it was observed that they all relied on spractions to cognize. From the fact that the biological working memory can process only about four items of information, the amount of working memory based distributed cognition can be calculated.