A Taxonomy of Cognitive Artifacts: Function, Information, and Categories
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ChatGPT can be considered a cognitive artifact because its function is to contribute to the solving of human cognitive tasks.
“Despite there being no universally shared definition of 'cognitive task' (Fasoli, 2017), and despite ChatGPT not being a cognitive system per se, it can still be considered a cognitive artifact since its function is to contribute to the solving of human cognitive tasks (Norman, 1991;Heersmink, 2013;Casati 2017;Fasoli, 2018).”
From ChatGPT and the Technology-Education Tension: Applying Contextual Virtue Epistemology to a Cognitive Artifact (2024) · cites this paper as Heersmink, 2013
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“Numerous philosophical and empirical studies conceptualize how we deploy artifacts to perform cognitive tasks (Kirsh and Maglio 1994; Kirsh 1995; Hutchins 1995; Clark and Chalmers 1998; Clark 2008; Heersmink 2013).”
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“This approach should be complemented with an even more encompassing framework of tool-use, which should include both representational (Fasoli, 2017; Heersmink, 2013) and non-representational artefacts (Mala-fouris, 2013).”
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- Authors
- Heersmink, R.
- Affiliations
- Macquarie University (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Heersmink, Richard
- ORCID
- Heersmink, Richard
- Venue
- Review of Philosophy and Psychology
- Published
- 2013-05-25
- Volume
- 4
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 465-481
- ISSN
- 1878-5158 (ISSN-L)
- 1878-5166
- OpenAlex
- W2005343546
- Cited by
- 164
- References
- 46
- Citations by year
- 2026: 21 · 2025: 21 · 2024: 21 · 2023: 21 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 13 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 12 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 3
- FWCI
- 26.95
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- philarchive.org
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Review of Philosophy and Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PhilPapers (PhilPapers Foundation) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History and Philosophy of Science › Cybernetics and Technology in Society
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Embodied and Extended Cognition
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Philosophy and Theoretical Science
- Keywords
- cognitive artifacts, taxonomy (general classification scheme), information, cognitive performance, human-made objects
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