The DOI matches its Crossref record; 47 of the 47 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; none of the 11 sources its claims cite is checked for support yet.
On Distinguishing Epistemic from Pragmatic Action
Open accessAbstract
We present data and argument to show that in Tetris—a real‐time, interactive video game—certain cognitive and perceptual problems are more quickly, easily, and reliably solved by performing actions in the world than by performing computational actions in the head alone. We have found that some of the translations and rotations made by players of this video game are best understood as actions that use the world to improve cognition. These actions are not used to implement a plan, or to implement a reaction; they are used to change the world in order to simplify the problem‐solving task. Thus, we distinguish pragmatic actions—actions performed to bring one physically closer to a goal—from epistemic actions—actions performed to uncover informatioan that is hidden or hard to compute mentally. To illustrate the need for epistemic actions, we first develop a standard information‐processing model of Tetris cognition and show that it cannot explain performance data from human players of the game—even when we relax the assumption of fully sequential processing. Standard models disregard many actions taken by players because they appear unmotivated or superfluous. However, we show that such actions are actually far from superfluous; they play a valuable role in improving human performance. We argue that traditional accounts are limited because they regard action as having a single function: to change the world. By recognizing a second function of action—an epistemic function—we can explain many of the actions that a traditional model cannot. Although our argument is supported by numerous examples specifically from Tetris, we outline how the new category of epistemic action can be incorporated into theories of action more generally.
Overview
AI snapshot
Written from the paper’s full text.
TL;DR
The paper argues that Tetris players perform some rotations and translations not to advance a physical goal but to simplify cognition, introducing epistemic actions as distinct from pragmatic actions. A classical sequential information-processing model and an interleaving variant fail to explain extra rotations and translate-to-wall routines, which are better explained as actions that uncover information, reduce mental rotation, or verify placement.
Key findings
- Players rotate zoids more than expected for purely pragmatic placement: each zoid is rotated more than half its possible rotations; for a shape with four distinct orientations, the expected average would be 1.5 rotations, but observed rotations exceed this. Rotations sometimes begin before 100 ms, before the zoid is fully visible.
- Early rotation can expose hidden parts 150 to 300 ms earlier than waiting for natural appearance; partially hidden zoids ambiguous in both shape and position are more likely to be rotated than those ambiguous in shape alone, though no player reported noticing that zoids begin falling in different columns.
- Physical rotation of a zoid 90° can take as few as 100 ms, whereas mental rotation of a zoid 90° is estimated at 800 to 1200 ms. The translate-to-wall verification routine occurs in about 1% of drops; experts drop a zoid on average 15.65 squares from resting position ordinarily versus 20.05 squares after the translate routine, with intermediate players 13.18 versus 19.04 and advanced players 13.69 versus 19.33.
- The translate-to-wall routine moves the zoid away from the intended column, so it cannot be a pragmatically good move; its function is to verify the column and reduce error, and higher drops are more likely to be verified this way.
Methods
- Design: Tetris was used as a real-time, interactive video game domain; the authors implemented a computational laboratory to unobtrusively record the timing of all keystrokes and game situations, collected tachistoscopic mental rotation tests, and designed and implemented the RoboTetris expert system to compare human and machine performance.
- Sample: the mental rotation pilot had three Tetris players—one intermediate, one advanced, and one expert—each seeing eight presentations of each possible pair of L-shaped or S-shaped zoids; human gameplay data came from subjects playing Tetris.
- Analysis: a classical four-phase information-processing model was constructed (bitmap representation, chunked symbolic representation, placement computation, motor plan computation), then relaxed to allow cascade/interleaving; model predictions such as expected rotation counts were compared with observed keystroke timing and frequency, and deviations were interpreted as epistemic actions.
Limitations
- The paper states it is often hard to prove that an agent performs a particular action for epistemic rather than pragmatic reasons, because an action can serve both epistemic and pragmatic purposes simultaneously, making the relative influence difficult to quantify.
- The paper states it is an open question whether agents use multiple-perspective representations of zoids; the mental rotation data are described as pilot data from only three players, so the mental rotation time estimates are preliminary.
- Evident from the text: many epistemic interpretations are inferred from timing and behavioral regularities rather than direct experimental manipulation, and the mental rotation comparison rests on a very small sample.
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Claims the paper makes
74 Own interpretation · 18 No basis given · 15 Own result · 4 Sources not found · 2 No full text of the sources · 1 Own method
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In the paper
“By rotating an emerging zoid, players can expose its hidden parts, thereby uncovering its complete visual image 150 to 300 ms earlier than if they waited for it to appear naturally.”
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In the paper
“We have observed that occasionally a zoid will be rotated very early (before 100 ms), well before we would expect an agent to have any good idea of where to place the zoid.”
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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“As shown in Table 1, experts drop a zoid, on average, when it is about 13 squares from its rest- ing position.”
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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In the paper
“The shortest time between keystrokes in our data is about 75 ms”
hedged- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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In the paper
“as shown in Figure 15, the greater the drop distance, the more likely the drop will be verified using the translate-to-wall routine.”
- Also stated in: § 546 KIRSH AND MAGLIO · plain
“we found that the higher the drop, the more often the translate-to-wall routine is used.”
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- Also stated in: § 546 KIRSH AND MAGLIO · plain
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Rotations and translations occur in abundance, almost from the moment a zoid enters the Tetris screen.”
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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In the paper
“the average time between keystrokes is around 250 ms”
hedged- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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In the paper
“Our observations, however, indicate that agents learn qualitatively different behavioral tricks.”
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“Our data show that a player is more likely to rotate a partially hidden zoid that is ambiguous in both shape and position than one ambiguous in shape alone.”
hedgedcorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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In the paper
“But we have found at least one unambiguously epistemic use of transiation: to verify judgment of the column of a zoid.”
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Probably not a substantial claim. 17
- It may state two separate claims as one. 8
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“In fewer than 10 hours, a newcomer can play at an intermediate level.”
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“Agents learn how to expose information early, how to prime themselves to recognize zoids faster, and how to perform external checks or verifications to reduce the uncertainty of judgments.”
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“This is particularly clear given that at 100 ms, the zoid is not yet completely in view, and sometimes the agent cannot even reliably guess the zoid's shape.”
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“Some players do report having hot spots in mind before an episode begins.”
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“P emerges in column 4, and R emerges in column 5”
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“First, it is a fast, repetitive game requiring split-second decisions of a perceptual and cognitive sort.”
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“In such studies, actions are defined as transformations in physical or social space.”
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In the paper
“There are only four possible actions a player can take: translate a zoid right, translate left, rotate, and drop.”
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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“Because time is at a premium in this game, a standard perfor- mance model would predict that players develop strategies that minimize the number of moves, creating sequences of pragmatic actions which head directly toward goal states.”
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“The effects of rotating a zoid are wholly determinate.”
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“The only certain way to get information about new candidates into the iconic buffer is through perception.”
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In the paper
“In Phase Three, players determine where to put the zoid.”
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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In the paper
“there are a host of separate brain regions involved in encoding the bitmap features in the iconic buffer. Some of these have close connections to motor cortex (Felleman & Van Essen, 1991; Sereno & Allman, 1991).”
What the sources say
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Felleman & Van Essen, 1991 source
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Sereno & Allman, 1991
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In the paper
“In Phase Three-the decision phase-rotation also serves a variety of epistemic functions.”
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In the paper
“By definition, it requires moving the zoid away from the currently intended column, and hence it cannot be a pragmatically good move.”
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In the paper
“Of course, such epistemic procedures may be cached, but they are not pragmatic procedures; they are procedures that direct the agent to exploit the environment to make the most of his or her limited cognitive resources.”
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None of the sources cited for this claim could be matched to a paper in Crossref, so there is nothing to check it against.
In the paper
“standard accounts of skill acquisition explain enhanced performance as the result of chunking, cach- ing, or compiling (Anderson, 1983; Newell, 1990; Newell & Rosenbloom, 1981; Reason, 1990).”
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites Anderson, 1983
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
- Not matchedcites Newell, 1990
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- Not matchedcites Newell & Rosenbloom, 1981; Reason, 1990
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- Not matched
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In the paper
“It is clearly in the interest of a player to identify the complete shape as soon as possible.”
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In the paper
“The processing model this suggests to us is a significant departure from classical theories of action. Its chief novelty lies in allowing individual func- tional units inside the agent to be in closed-loop interaction with the outside world.”
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In the paper
“the greater the drop height, the more in- formative the verification and the less risky (costly) the action.”
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“it is not outrageous to suppose that there is motor involvement in selective attention since there already exists a close connection between attention and the oculo- motor system responsible for saccades.”
hedgedcorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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In the paper
“This kind of model follows the distributed framework proposed by Minsky (1986).”
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites Minsky (1986)
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Not matched
The authors state this as an assumption.
Tetris cognition proceeds in four major phases.
“It is based on a classical information-processing model of expertise based on the sup- position that Tetris cognition proceeds in four major phases:”
The authors state this as an assumption.
The model is fully sequential: Phase Two is completed before Phase Three begins, and Three is completed before Four begins.
“As we have stated it, the model is fully sequential: Phase Two is completed before Phase Three begins, and Three is completed before Four begins.”
The paper relies on this without support.
Each zoid emerges in a random orientation, and on average any zoid can be expected to be placed in any of its orientations with equal probability.
“This follows because each zoid emerges in a random orientation, and on average, any zoid can be expected to be placed in any of its orientations with equal probability.”
The paper relies on this without support.
When a zoid first enters at the top of the screen, only a fraction of its total form is visible.
“When a zoid first enters at the top of the screen, only a fraction of its total form is visible.”
The paper relies on this without support.
At medium speed, a zoid descends at a rate of one square every 150 ms.
“At medium speed, a zoid descends at a rate of one square every 150 ms.”
The paper relies on this without support.
The close coupling between attention and saccades is already accepted.
“The close coupling between attention and saccades is already accepted”
The authors state this as an assumption.
Matching is a primitive process in working memory: Zoid chunk and contour chunk can be compared and matched only if they are explicitly represented in working memory.
“So far we have assumed that matching is a primitive process in working memory: Zoid chunk and contour chunk can be compared and matched only if they are explicitly represented in working memory.”
The paper relies on this without support.
The local effects of an action in Tetris are totally determinate, with no hidden states, exogenous influences, or other agents to change the result of hitting the rotate key.
“The property of Tetris which makes such a strategy pay off is that the local effects of an action are totally determinate. There are no hidden states, exogenous influences, or other agents to change the result of hitting the rotate key.”
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“Exploratory epistemic actions (Kirsh and Maglio, 1994) are performed to unveil hidden information or to gain insight that would otherwise require a great deal of mental computation.”
From Physical and Virtual Tools: Activity Theory Applied to the Design of Groupware (2002) · cites this paper as Kirsh and Maglio, 1994
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“Empirically, such externalisations have been shown to improve problem-solving accuracy as well as speed (Kirsh & Maglio, 1994).”
From Consequences of cognitive offloading: Boosting performance but diminishing memory (2021) · cites this paper as Kirsh & Maglio, 1994
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“Hence, cognitive offloading with technical tools might enable performance beyond internal cognitive limitations and thus increase immediate performance (Kirsh & Maglio, 1994; Salomon & Perkins, 2005).”
From Consequences of cognitive offloading: Boosting performance but diminishing memory (2021) · cites this paper as Kirsh & Maglio, 1994
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“Kirsh and Maglio (1994) argue that it is cognitively more economical to rotate the figure on screen by pushing a controller button than to mentally simulate the correct rotation.”
From The Cognitive Architecture of Digital Externalization (2023) · cites this paper as Kirsh and Maglio (1994)
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.
Rated minor: it would not touch a result — a value no result rests on, a p-value that stays on the same side of the significance level, or a conflict that is clerical, resolved elsewhere in the paper, or outside its own findings.
In the paper
§ 538 KIRSH AND MAGLIO
“As shown in Table 1, experts drop a zoid, on average, when it is about 13 squares from its rest- ing position. On those occasions when they also perform the translate-to- wall routine, the zoid is dropped, on average, from about 19 squares above its resting position”
§ 538 KIRSH AND MAGLIO
“Intermediate Advanced Expert M Drop Distance 13.18 13.69 15.65 M Drop Distance after Translate Routine 19.04 19.33 20.05”
Citations
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Konkel, M. K., Ullmer, B., Shaer, O., Mazalek, A., & Branton, C. (2020) · Personal and Ubiquitous Computing · doi:10.1007/s00779-020-01376-5 · Cited by 24
“Active tokens could be lifted from the workspace and held, placed, or exchanged with other users to support varying [81].”
BackgroundEngineering representations guide student problem‐solving in statics
Johnson‐Glauch, N., & Herman, G. L. (2019) · Journal of Engineering Education · doi:10.1002/jee.20258 · Cited by 24
“These representations help engineers solve problems by coherently organizing information, by managing cognitive load (Card, Mackinlay, & Schneiderman, 1999), or by suggesting future actions (Kirsh & Maglio, 1994).”
BackgroundDo teachers believe that video games can improve learning?
Pozo, J. I., Cabellos, B., & Sánchez, D. L. (2022) · Heliyon · doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e09798 · Cited by 38
“Addressing the work of Kirsh and Maglio (1994) (also see Alderoqui and Pozo, 2013), players exhibit less learning when playing by the rules and purposes suggested by VG, following pragmatic goals aimed at succeeding compared to those who play through an instructional intervention and intend to…”
BackgroundGoldstone, R. L., Pestilli, F., & Börner, K. (2015) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2015.05.012 · Cited by 23
Designing reality-based interfaces for experiential bio-design
Shaer, O., Valdes, C., Liu, S., Lu, K., Chang, K., Xu, W. M., Haddock, T. L., Bhatia, S. P., Densmore, D. M., & Kincaid, R. H. (2013) · Personal and Ubiquitous Computing · doi:10.1007/s00779-013-0752-1 · Cited by 24
“Probably, most wellknown are Kirsh’s [46, 47] investigations of epistemic actions, which are not functional but help explore options and support memory.”
BackgroundSenathirajah, Y., Kaufman, D. M., & Henry, S. B. (2014) · Journal of Biomedical Informatics · doi:10.1016/j.jbi.2014.09.008 · Cited by 24
“studied ‘epistemic action’ defined as actions that are not required as part of the goal task but that provide an advantage for intermediate mental processing [12].”
Extended cognition & constitution: Re-evaluating the constitutive claim of extended cognition
Kirchhoff, M. D. (2013) · Philosophical Psychology · doi:10.1080/09515089.2012.724394 · Cited by 24
Socially Situated Cognition: Recasting Social Cognition as an Emergent Phenomenon
Semin, G. R., Garrido, M. V., & Palma, T. A. (2012) · SAGE Publications Ltd eBooks · doi:10.4135/9781446247631.n8 · Cited by 27
“, & Kunda, Z. (1999). Reactions to a black professional: Motivated inhibition and activation of conflicting stereotypes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 885−904. Smeesters, D., Wheeler, S. C., & Kay, A. C. (2010). Indirect prime-to-behavior effects: The role of perceptions of the self, others, and si…”
BackgroundInfluentialGestures Enhance Executive Functions for the Understating of Mathematical Concepts
Khatin‐Zadeh, O., Eskandari, Z., & Marmolejo‐Ramos, F. (2022) · Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science · doi:10.1007/s12124-022-09694-4 · Cited by 24
“In fact, gestures can reduce the load of processing by transferring some parts of the load of cognitive processing into the environment (Kirsh & Maglio, 1994).”
Effect of gis learning on spatial ability
Lee, J. W. (2006) · OakTrust (Texas A&M University Libraries) · Cited by 29
Role of Embodied Movement in Assessing Creative Behavior in Early Childhood: A Focused Review
Frith, E., Loprinzi, P. D., & Miller, S. E. (2019) · Perceptual and Motor Skills · doi:10.1177/0031512519868622 · Cited by 32
“The fundamental premise of embodied cognitive simplification strategies is that they reduce the mental workload required to solve tasks, freeing the mind to effectively offset cognitive limitations and reorganize information (Kirsh & Maglio, 1994).”
Backgroundvan Dijk, J., & van der Lugt, R. (2013) · Artificial intelligence for engineering design analysis and manufacturing · doi:10.1017/s0890060413000024 · Cited by 23
Epistemic Actions in Science Education
Kastens, K. A., Liben, L. S., & Agrawal, S. (2008) · Lecture notes in computer science · doi:10.1007/978-3-540-87601-4_16 · Cited by 23
“Kirsch and Maglio [1] explicated their ideas in terms of the computer game Tetris.”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialCognitive extension, enhancement, and the phenomenology of thinking
Walsh, P. J. (2016) · Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1007/s11097-016-9461-3 · Cited by 23
“7 Frequently cited sources from this tradition include Kirsh and Maglio (1995) and Hutchins (1995).”
BackgroundCatch that word: interactivity, serendipity and verbal fluency in a word production task
Ross, W., & Vallée‐Tourangeau, F. (2020) · Psychological Research · doi:10.1007/s00426-019-01279-y · Cited by 23
Is it possible to experimentally determine the extension of cognition?
Baumgärtner, M., & Wilutzky, W. (2017) · Philosophical Psychology · doi:10.1080/09515089.2017.1355453 · Cited by 23
“HEC has its roots in empirical results from (neuro-)psychology indicating that it is advantageous to model certain cognitive processes in such a way that some of their relevant parts are situated in the extracerebral body (Kirsh and Maglio 1994; Ballard et al. 1995; Romo et al. 1998).”
BackgroundAnalysis of the Dynamics of Cognitive Processes
Bosse, T. (2005) · Digital Academic REpository of VU University Amsterdam (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) · Cited by 23
Moritz, J., Meyerhoff, H. S., & Schwan, S. (2020) · Journal of Educational Psychology · doi:10.1037/edu0000364 · Cited by 22
Casacuberta, D., & Vallverdú, J. (2013) · Philosophical Psychology · doi:10.1080/09515089.2013.827961 · Cited by 22
“Based on a detailed analysis of how people play Tetris, Kirsh and Maglio (1994) proposed the concept of epistemic action.”
BackgroundCowley, S. J., & Kuhle, A. (2020) · Biosystems · doi:10.1016/j.biosystems.2020.104264 · Cited by 26
Do Future Teachers Believe that Video Games Help Learning?
Cabellos, B., Sánchez, D. L., & Pozo, J. I. (2021) · Technology Knowledge and Learning · doi:10.1007/s10758-021-09586-3 · Cited by 22
Hybrid Design Tools for Participatory, Embodied Sensemaking: An Applied Framework
Smit, D., Hengeveld, B., Murer, M., & Tscheligi, M. (2022) · International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI) · doi:10.1145/3490149.3501332 · Cited by 24
“Tangible objects have been shown to better support epistemic action than non-physical tools [34, 42]: physical objects can become ‘shareable objects of thought’ [33], which support participatory, embodied sensemaking.”
BackgroundEffects of Probing Behaviors to Adapt Machine Autonomy in Shared Control Systems
Horiguchi, Y., & Sawaragi, T. (2006) · Conference proceedings/Conference proceedings - IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics · doi:10.1109/icsmc.2005.1571165 · Cited by 22
“This exploratory or knowledge-granting aspect of action, called epistemic action [4][5], would contribute to making latent information overt by activating constraints which connect proximal cues and hidden or distal structures.”
BackgroundSystemic Cognition: Human Artifice in Life and Language
Cowley, S. J., & Vallée‐Tourangeau, F. (2013) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-1-4471-5125-8_14 · Cited by 22
Putting apes (body and language) together again
Cowley, S. J., & Spurrett, D. (2002) · Language Sciences · doi:10.1016/s0388-0001(02)00020-7 · Cited by 22
The Effect of Augmented and Virtual Reality Interfaces in the Creative Design Process
Chandrasekera, T., & Yoon, S. (2018) · International Journal of Virtual and Augmented Reality · doi:10.4018/ijvar.2018010101 · Cited by 22
Kimmel, M., & Rogler, C. R. (2019) · Human Movement Science · doi:10.1016/j.humov.2018.08.008 · Cited by 25
Rowlands, M. (2019) · doi:10.1093/oso/9780190846039.001.0001 · Cited by 22
van Rheden, V., & Hengeveld, B. (2016) · International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI) · doi:10.1145/2839462.2839498 · Cited by 22
Vallée-Tourangeau, G., & Vallée‐Tourangeau, F. (2017) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-49115-8_7 · Cited by 25
Manual and virtual rotation of three-dimensional object.
Ruddle, R. A., & Jones, D. M. (2001) · Journal of Experimental Psychology Applied · doi:10.1037/1076-898x.7.4.286 · Cited by 22
“In other words, participants might have engaged in pragmatic actions ( Kirsh & Maglio, 1994 ) to help overcome their difficulty in perceiving the mobile object's orientation.”
BackgroundAlternative Tools for Tangible Interaction: A Usability Evaluation
Fjeld, M., Guttormsen, S., Signorello, D., et al. (2002) · Cited by 22
González-Grandón, X. A., & Froese, T. (2018) · Adaptive Behavior · doi:10.1177/1059712318791633 · Cited by 22
Interactivity Defuses the Impact of Mathematics Anxiety in Primary School Children
Allen, M. J., & Vallée‐Tourangeau, F. (2015) · International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education · doi:10.1007/s10763-015-9659-9 · Cited by 20
Semiotic Brains and Artificial Minds
Magnani, L. (2007) · IGI Global eBooks · doi:10.4018/978-1-59904-063-9.ch001 · Cited by 21
Critiquing Physical Prototypes for a Remote Audience
Mok, T., & Oehlberg, L. (2017) · Designing Interactive Systems Conference · doi:10.1145/3064663.3064722 · Cited by 24
“Our participants performed both epistemic actions —actions used to discover information [33] to understand how the prototypes worked and pragmatic actions —actions that “brings one physically closer to a goal” [33]—to demonstrate or show the prototype.”
BackgroundJones, M. (2018) · Synthese · doi:10.1007/s11229-018-01922-y · Cited by 22
Fabry, R. E. (2021) · Biology & Philosophy · doi:10.1007/s10539-021-09782-6 · Cited by 25
Goodman, S. G., Seymour, T. L., & Anderson, B. R. (2016) · Computers in Human Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.chb.2016.01.006 · Cited by 21
“The nature of both the internal and external representations can greatly influence one's strategy, exploration, and understanding of the task's constraints (Kirsh & Maglio, 1994; Zhang, 1997; Zhang & Norman, 1994).”
BackgroundTactile Paths: on and through Notation for ImprovisersPreprint
Williams, C. J. (2017) · doi:10.22501/rc.100392 · Cited by 21
Data Analytics Anywhere and Everywhere
Elmqvist, N. (2023) · Communications of the ACM · doi:10.1145/3584858 · Cited by 20
“2001”
Mathematical Rigour and Informal Proof
Tanswell, F. S. (2024) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781009325110 · Cited by 19
Roth, W., Mavin, T. J., & Munro, I. (2014) · Cognition Technology & Work · doi:10.1007/s10111-014-0292-0 · Cited by 20
“It has been shown that such ergotic actions are used to bring about changes in the world such that the problem-solving task becomes easier rather than being used to implement plans or reactions (Kirsh and Maglio 1994).”
BackgroundResultInfluentialA cognitive account of expertise: Why Rational Choice Theory is (often) a fiction
Muntanyola‐Saura, D. (2014) · Theory & Psychology · doi:10.1177/0959354313513510 · Cited by 22
“…the other prisoner might talk after all: a rational assumption, if we consider the lack of empathy that occurs in most professional environments.6 Kirsh and Maglio (1994) show how expert players in handling non-symbolic manipulation, as in a Tetris game, prefer to physically manipulate the…”
BackgroundThe Effect of Tangible User Interfaces on Cognitive Load in the Creative Design Process
Chandrasekera, T., & Yoon, S. (2015) · IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality - Arts, Media, and Humanities (ISMAR-AMH) · doi:10.1109/ismar-mashd.2015.18 · Cited by 21
“Kirsh and Maglio [2] introduced the concepts of epistemic action and pragmatic action.”
BackgroundA design case study of a tangible system supporting young English language learners
Fan, M., Antle, A. N., Hoskyn, M., & Neustaedter, C. (2018) · International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction · doi:10.1016/j.ijcci.2018.08.001 · Cited by 21
Spatial Tangible User Interfaces for Cognitive Assessment and Training
Sharlin, E., Itoh, Y., Watson, B. A., et al. (2004) · Lecture notes in computer science · doi:10.1007/978-3-540-27835-1_11 · Cited by 20
“In fact, this information might have been very hard to find without trial-and-error [4].”
BackgroundBeyond the Bounds of Cognition
Susi, T., Lindblom, J., & Ziemke, T. (2003) · eScholarship (California Digital Library) · Cited by 20
How Public Statues Wrong: Affective Artifacts and Affective Injustice
Archer, A. (2024) · Topoi · doi:10.1007/s11245-024-10025-y · Cited by 33
“Rather than mentally rotating these blocks to find the best place for them, players will often physically rotate them on the screen, as this is a more efficient and reliable process for selecting the best strategy (Kirsh and Maglio 1994 ).”
Constructing Expertise: Surmounting Performance Plateaus by Tasks, by Tools, and by Techniques
Gray, W. D., & Banerjee, S. (2021) · Topics in Cognitive Science · doi:10.1111/tops.12575 · Cited by 17
Embodied Interaction as Designed Mediation of Conceptual Performance
Trninić, D., & Abrahamson, D. (2012) · Mathematics education in the digital era · doi:10.1007/978-94-007-2321-4_5 · Cited by 20
“…and what distinguishes EI from “hands on” educational activities in general, whether involving concrete or virtual objects, is that EI users’ physical actions are intrinsic, and not just Conceptual Performance 14 logistically instrumental, to obtaining information (Kirsh & Maglio, 1994).”
BackgroundGibbs, R. W. (2005) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511805844.007 · Cited by 19
The embodied and situated nature of computer game play.
Rambusch, J. (2006) · Cited by 18
Embodied AI as Science: Models of Embodied Cognition, Embodied Models of Cognition, or Both?
Tom Ziemke, B. (2004) · Lecture notes in computer science · doi:10.1007/978-3-540-27833-7_2 · Cited by 20
“through epistemic actions [16], i.”
The spatio-temporal dynamics of systemic thinkingPreprint
Vallée-Tourangeau, G., & Vallée‐Tourangeau, F. (2019) · doi:10.31219/osf.io/t934u · Cited by 18
Tracking the Origin of Signs in Mathematical Activity: A Material Phenomenological Approach
Roth, W. (2012) · Cited by 18
Claure, H., Kim, S., Kizilcec, R. F., & Jung, M. F. (2022) · Computers in Human Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.chb.2022.107628 · Cited by 25
DEWEY ON EXTENDED COGNITION AND EPISTEMOLOGY
Vaesen, K. (2014) · Philosophical Issues · doi:10.1111/phis.12041 · Cited by 18
“Research of Kirsh & Maglio on Scrabble and Tetris playing, for instance, serves as a sort of exemplar for the field (Kirsh and Maglio, 1994; Kirsh, 1995).”
BackgroundCrowd-scale interactive formal reasoning and analytics
Fast, E., Lee, C., Aiken, A., Bernstein, M. S., Koller, D., & Smith, E. W. (2013) · ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST) · doi:10.1145/2501988.2502028 · Cited by 17
“Learning rarely takes place without error, whether indeliberate or exploratory as students use the system as a means of externalizing cognition [16].”
BackgroundHuman Agency and the Resources of Reason
Neumann, M., & Cowley, S. J. (2013) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-1-4471-5125-8_2 · Cited by 18
Sibert, C., Gray, W. D., & Lindstedt, J. K. (2016) · Topics in Cognitive Science · doi:10.1111/tops.12225 · Cited by 19
Slide navigation patterns among pathologists with long experience of digital review
Molin, J., Fjeld, M., Mello-Thoms, C. R., et al. (2014) · Histopathology · doi:10.1111/his.12629 · Cited by 18
“It has been shown that physical actions can make mental computation easier, faster or more reliable.(15) Already, pathologists make use of multiple actions that relieve working memory, such as turning reviewed slides upside-down(12) or using a lawnmower search pattern,(16) both strategies to keep track of areas alread…”
BackgroundDistributed Cognition at Three Months: Caregiver-infant Dyads in KwaZulu-Natal
Cowley, S. J. (2003) · Cited by 18
Embedded Rationality: A Unified Simulation Framework for Interactive Form Finding
Attar, R., Aish, R., Stam, J., et al. (2010) · International Journal of Architectural Computing · doi:10.1260/1478-0771.8.4.399 · Cited by 18
Conditions for Fully Autonomous Anticipation
Collier, J. D. (2006) · AIP conference proceedings · doi:10.1063/1.2216637 · Cited by 18
“…(Bickhard 1999, 2000a, 2000b) and distributed cognition as proposed by people like Hutchins (1995), Clark (1997, Clark and Chalmers 1998) and Kirsh and Maglio (1994) in cognitive science (of course the theoretical basis of these ideas can be traced back to von Foerster 1960 – they are…”
BUILD-IT: A brick-based, integral solution supporting multidisciplinary design tasks
Fjeld, M., Lauche, K., Dierssen, S., Bichsel, M., & Rauterberg, M. (1998) · Designing Effective and Usable Multimedia Systems · doi:10.1007/978-0-387-35370-8_10 · Cited by 18
“So, epistemic and pragmatic action (Kirsh and Maglio, 1994) are equally encouraged.”
BackgroundSupporting Everyday Creativity in Ubiquitous Music Making
Keller, D., & Lima, M. H. M. (2016) · Advances in multimedia and interactive technologies book series · doi:10.4018/978-1-5225-0270-8.ch005 · Cited by 18
Give yourself a hand: The role of gesture and working memory in preschoolers’ numerical knowledge
Gordon, R., Scalise, N. R., & Ramani, G. B. (2021) · Journal of Experimental Child Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2021.105145 · Cited by 17
Kimmel, M., & Groth, C. (2023) · Adaptive Behavior · doi:10.1177/10597123231179488 · Cited by 18
“Similar claims emerge from research on interactivity-based cognition, showing that acting in one ’ s ecology produces more rapid, robust, or parsimonious cognition than internal thought alone, for example, by using space as an external memory (Kirsh, 1995; 2014; Kirsh & Maglio, 1994).”
BackgroundVideo games as research instruments
Gámez, E. H. C., Cairns, P. A., Gow, J., et al. (2010) · CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA) · doi:10.1145/1753846.1754182 · Cited by 17
The semiotic work of the hands in scientific enquiry
Sakr, M., Jewitt, C., & Price, S. (2014) · Classroom Discourse · doi:10.1080/19463014.2013.868078 · Cited by 17
“Various taxonomies of gesture and manipulation have been constructed in previous research (e.g. Kirsh & Maglio, 1994; Jaworski & Thurlow, 2009; Goodwin, 2003; Cook & Goldin-Meadow, 2006).”
BackgroundMethodThinking with External Representations
Kirsh, D. (2013) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-1-4471-5125-8_10 · Cited by 17
Self-citationCowley, S. J. (2012) · Interaction Studies Social Behaviour and Communication in Biological and Artificial Systems · doi:10.1075/is.13.1.02cow · Cited by 17
Using PVS to support the analysis of distributed cognition systems
Masci, P. M., Curzon, P., Furniss, D. J., et al. (2013) · Innovations in Systems and Software Engineering · doi:10.1007/s11334-013-0202-2 · Cited by 17
“For example, in everyday interactions we use to-do lists to organise attention to tasks, we use shopping lists to extend our memory, and we group piles of paper to organise our work—we change the environment to support the task we need to perform [20].”
MethodTHE DYNAMICS OF EMBODIED COGNITION
Hotton, S., & Yoshimi, J. (2010) · International Journal of Bifurcation and Chaos · doi:10.1142/s0218127410026241 · Cited by 16
“…[Hutchins, 1995], coordinated behavior (e.g. walking and predation, [Chiel & Beer, 1997], Scrabble [Kirsch, 1998], and the video game Tetris [Kirsch & Maglio, 1994] are among the examples that have been studied.1 Many in the “embodied cognition” tradition, which studies these types of…”
BackgroundHardy, J. G. (2012) · Designing Interactive Systems Conference · doi:10.1145/2317956.2318058 · Cited by 17
“[15] use the term ‘epistemic action’ to describe the actions people take to alter their environment in order to gather information and facilitate cognition.”
BackgroundComparing different levels of interaction constraints for deriving visual problem isomorphs
Dou, W., Ziemkiewicz, C., Harrison, L., et al. (2010) · IEEE Symposium on Visual Analytics Science and Technology (VAST) · doi:10.1109/vast.2010.5653599 · Cited by 17
“In particular, David Kirsh has argued extensively that projection and interaction with external representations are fundamental to human reasoning [7, 8, 9, 10, 11].”
BackgroundKimmel, M., Irran, C., & Luger, M. A. (2015) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01424 · Cited by 24
“In this arc, the expert’s “closed loop interaction with the outside world” (Kirsh and Maglio, 1994, p. 542) incorporates attention-focusing, information gathering, generative, and full-out actions in various mixes.”
BackgroundSedig, K., Parsons, P., & Haworth, R. (2017) · Informatics · doi:10.3390/informatics4010004 · Cited by 18
“The term ‘game mechanics’ is used as a broad construct that includes such things as rules, methods, feedback, interactions, player behaviors, game objects, and algorithms (e.g., see [43,45–48]).”
BackgroundJin, Y., & Lee, S. (2019) · Digital Creativity · doi:10.1080/14626268.2019.1608264 · Cited by 17
“This can be viewed as more epistemic actions – actions augmenting human cognition to uncover hidden information – with an embodied VRE interface, versus dominantly pragmatic actions – actions that physically advance to the set goal – induced by WIMP interface (Kirsh and Maglio 1994).”
BackgroundSmart, P. R., Engelbrecht, P. C., Braines, D., Strub, M. H., & Giammanco, C. A. (2010) · IGI Global eBooks · doi:10.4018/978-1-61520-855-5.ch010 · Cited by 17
“In the case of Scrabble and other problem domains (see Kirsh, 2009), Kirsh and Maglio (1994) suggest that certain types of action play key roles in enabling us to solve the problem in question.”
BackgroundInfluentialBUILD-IT : a brick-based tool for direct interaction
Fjeld, M., Bichsel, M., & Matthias Rauterberg, A. (1999) · Cited by 17
Four Ways of Hearing Video Game Music
Kamp, M. (2023) · doi:10.1093/oso/9780197651216.001.0001 · Cited by 20
Walther-Hansen, M., & Grimshaw, M. (2016) · Audio Mostly Conference (AM) · doi:10.1145/2986416.2986425 · Cited by 16
“A classic example is Kirsh and Maglio’s [26] study of how Tetris players rotate objects on the screen rather than mentally rehearsing the rotations to solve the problem.”
BackgroundPande, P., & Chandrasekharan, S. (2021) · Research in Science Education · doi:10.1007/s11165-020-09981-3 · Cited by 16
“But most importantly, epistemic actions help experts see newer relationships between the task elements and representations (Aurigemma et al., 2013; Kirsh & Maglio, 1994).”
BackgroundHow systemic cognition enables epistemic engineering
Cowley, S. J., & Gahrn-Andersen, R. (2023) · Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence · doi:10.3389/frai.2022.960384 · Cited by 17
“As in the classic work on Tetris, the engineered system prompts the self-fabrication of epistemic powers (Kirsh and Maglio, 1994).”
BackgroundA Notebook of Data Imaginaries
Benabdallah, G., Kaneko, M. A., & Desjardins, A. (2023) · ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS) · doi:10.1145/3563657.3596025 · Cited by 16
“As such, in the early stages of the Notebook creation, sketching was part of what Kirsh and Maglio call epistemic actions –“actions performed to uncover information that is hidden or hard to compute mentally” [28].”
BackgroundMind the Body: How Embodied Cognition Matters in Manufacturing
Kolbeinsson, A., & Lindblom, J. (2015) · Procedia Manufacturing · doi:10.1016/j.promfg.2015.07.576 · Cited by 16
Using Interactive Visual Reasoning to Support Sense-Making: Implications for Design
Kodagoda, N., Attfield, S., Wong, B. L. W., et al. (2013) · IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics · doi:10.1109/tvcg.2013.211 · Cited by 16
“ForceSPIRE proposes the semantic interaction as a design space for user interaction to combine the massive data foraging abilities of statistical models and data mining algorithms.”
MethodNeuroethics, Cognitive Technologies and the Extended Mind Perspective
Heinrichs, J.-H. (2018) · Neuroethics · doi:10.1007/s12152-018-9365-8 · Cited by 16
Yung, A. K., Li, Z., & Ashbrook, D. (2018) · ACM International Conference on Interaction Design and Children (IDC) · doi:10.1145/3202185.3202751 · Cited by 16
“Children also learn through experimentation: they tend to design through trial and error, also known as epistemic action [36].”
BackgroundGames as Blends: Understanding Hybrid Games
Kankainen, V., Arjoranta, J., & Nummenmaa, T. (2017) · Journal of Virtual Reality and Broadcasting · doi:10.20385/1860-2037/14.2017.4 · Cited by 16
Janlert, L.-E. (2014) · interactions · doi:10.1145/2592234 · Cited by 16
Krickel, B. (2019) · Mind & Language · doi:10.1111/mila.12262 · Cited by 16
“…& Chalmers, 1998), an artist using a sketch pad (Hutto & Myin, 2017), Tetris players rotating blocks on a screen instead of mentally rotating them (Kirsh & Maglio, 1994), the role of bodily action in vision (Gibson, 1966; O’Regan & Noë, 2001), and the role of gestures in problem-solving, language…”
MethodMapping systemic resources in problem solving
Vallée‐Tourangeau, F., & Vallée-Tourangeau, G. (2020) · New Ideas in Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.newideapsych.2020.100812 · Cited by 18
Predicting Short‐Term Remembering as Boundedly Optimal Strategy Choice
Howes, A., Duggan, G. B., Kalidindi, K., Tseng, Y., & Lewis, R. L. (2015) · Cognitive Science · doi:10.1111/cogs.12271 · Cited by 17
“…2003; Duggan & Payne, 2001; Edwards, 1965; Gigerenzer & Selten, 2001; Gigerenzer, Todd & the ABC Group, 1999; Gray, Sims, Fu & Schoelles, 2006; Kirsh & Maglio, 1994; Payne, Bettman & Johnson, 1993; Payne, Duggan & Neth, 2007; Payne, Richardson & Howes, 2001; Schönpflug, 1986; Smith, Lewis,…”
Instructing animated agents: Viewing language in behavioral terms
Webber, B. (1998) · Lecture notes in computer science · doi:10.1007/bfb0052314 · Cited by 16
Spiel, K., & Gerling, K. (2019) · Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play · doi:10.1145/3311350.3347189 · Cited by 15
Vierkant, T. (2022) · doi:10.1093/oso/9780192894267.001.0001 · Cited by 15
Metadata
- Authors
- Kirsh, D., & Maglio, P.
- Affiliations
- University of California San Diego (US)
- Corresponding author
- Kirsh, David
- Venue
- Cognitive Science
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 1994-10
- Volume
- 18
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 513-549
- ISSN
- 0364-0213 (ISSN-L)
- 1551-6709
- OpenAlex
- W2128922568
- Cited by
- 1,641
- References
- 46
- Citations by year
- 2026: 63 · 2025: 123 · 2024: 47 · 2023: 64 · 2022: 112 · 2021: 50 · 2020: 104 · 2019: 89 · 2018: 60 · 2017: 60 · 2016: 66 · 2015: 83 · 2014: 71 · 2013: 83 · 2012: 57
- FWCI
- 4.51
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Cognitive Science (publishedVersion)
- PhilPapers (PhilPapers Foundation) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Embodied and Extended Cognition
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › AI-based Problem Solving and Planning
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Action Observation and Synchronization
- Keywords
- epistemic actions, Tetris, video gaming, cognition and action, information processing model, problem solving, philosophy of action
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
A language model drew the claims from the paper on 2026-10-12, under version 3 of the claim definition (model deepseek-v4.1-flash, prompt extract-v3).
A second model labelled each claim on 2026-10-12 (model jev-1.13-20260917, definition revision gold-guideline-v0.2).
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
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