Rotating With Rotated Text: A Natural Behavior Approach to Investigating Cognitive Offloading

Abstract

Determining how we use our body to support cognition represents an important part of understanding the embodied and embedded nature of cognition. In the present investigation, we pursue this question in the context of a common perceptual task. Specifically, we report a series of experiments investigating head tilt (i.e., external normalization) as a strategy in letter naming and reading stimuli that are upright or rotated. We demonstrate that the frequency of this natural behavior is modulated by the cost of stimulus rotation on performance. In addition, we demonstrate that external normalization can benefit performance. All of the results are consistent with the notion that external normalization represents a form of cognitive offloading and that effort is an important factor in the decision to adopt an internal or external strategy.

Toward a more embedded/extended perspective on the cognitive function of gestures

“…Relevant in this regard is a recent set of experiments conducted by Risko et al (2013) in which participants were presented with a varying number of letters that were either presented upright or tilted at 45° or 90°. Participants spontaneously rotated their head, which indeed seemed to promote readability of tilted presentation of letters.…”

Problem Solvers Adjust Cognitive Offloading Based on Performance Goals

“…Such incorporation of external resources into the cognitive repertoire can be quite rewarding as it can change a cognitive task's cost structure (Kirsh, 2010) and, if used wisely, improve task-related performance. In other words, internal and external strategies are associated with distinct performance profiles 2 (e.g., Lemaire & Lecacheur, 2001;Risko, Medimorec, Chisholm, & Kingstone, 2014;Siegler & Lemaire, 1997;Touron & Hertzog, 2014;Walsh & Anderson, 2009), which makes it important to choose the right strategy at the right time. For example, outsourcing arithmetic to a calculator can be superior to mental processing because the former might afford increased speed and accuracy with respect to the latter (Siegler & Lemaire, 1997).…”

Storing information in-the-world: Metacognition and cognitive offloading in a short-term memory task

“…Indeed, our ability to adaptively integrate internal with external processes likely represents a defining feature of what it means to be a successful cognitive agent in a complex environment. Understanding how the cognitive system goes about integrating internal with external processes in pursuit of a cognitive goal is attracting renewed interest (Chisholm, Risko, & Kingstone, 2013Dunn & Risko, in press;Eskritt, Lee, & Donald, 2001;Eskritt & Ma, 2014;Fu, 2011;Gilbert, 2015a,b;Kirsh, 2010;Landsiedel & Gilbert, 2015;Risko, Medimorec, Chisholm, & Kingstone, 2014;Sparrow, Liu, & Wegner, 2011;Storm & Stone, 2015) with the increasing popularity of perspectives emphasizing the central role of the body and physical/social environment in cognition (e.g., embodied/embedded cognition; e.g., Glenberg, 2010; distributed cognition; e.g., Michaelian & Sutton, 2013). In considering the interaction between internal and external processes, researchers often describe the latter as being used to ''lighten the load'' on the former, a phenomenon referred to as cognitive offloading (e.g., Gilbert, 2015a,b;Goldin-Meadow, Nusbaum, Kelly, & Wagner, 2001;Landsiedel & Gilbert, 2015;Martin & Schwartz, 2005;Risko et al, 2014;Storm & Stone, 2015;Wilson, 2002).…”

“…While cognitive offloading is not limited to any one particular domain (see Risko et al, 2014 for work in the perceptual domain), this behavior is often discussed in the context of memory tasks. One common example of offloading internal memory demands onto the environment is to record to-be-remembered information in some external medium (e.g., write, type into a computer; Cary & Carlson, 1999Eskritt & Ma, 2014;Eskritt et al, 2001;Intons-Peterson & Fournier, 1986;Sparrow et al, 2011;Storm & Stone, 2015).…”

“…The decision to offload internal processing onto some external medium is most often conceived of as being based on an effort based cost benefit analysis (Cary & Carlson, 2001;Clark, 2010;Gray & Boehm-Davis, 2000;Gray, Sims, Fu, & Schoelles, 2006;Kirsh, 2010;Risko et al, 2014). While intuitive, one important issue with this approach is the difficulty inherent in operationalizing effort independently of the behavior (Dunn & Risko, in press).…”