Mind, Body, World- Foundations of Cognitive Science, 2013a

Scribner’s own work (Scribner & Tobach, 1997) was inspired by Vygotskian
theory but aimed to extend its scope by examining practical cognition. Scribner
described her research as the study of mind in action, because she viewed cognitive
processes as being embedded with human action in the world. Scribner’s studies
analyzed “the characteristics of memory and thought as they function in the larger,
purposive activities which cultures organize and in which individuals engage”
(p. 384). In other words, the everyday cognition studied by Scribner and her colleagues
provided ample evidence of cognitive scaffolding: “Practical problem solving
is an open system that includes components lying outside the formal problem—
objects and information in the environment and goals and interests of the problem
solver” (pp. 334–335).
One example of Scribner’s work on mind in action was the observation of
problem-solving strategies exhibited by different types of workers at a dairy
(Scribner & Tobach, 1997). It was discovered that a reliable difference between
expert and novice dairy workers was that the former were more versatile in finding
solutions to problems, largely because expert workers were much more able
to exploit environmental resources. “The physical environment did not determine
the problem-solving process but . . . was drawn into the process through worker
initiative” (p. 377).
For example, one necessary job in the dairy was assembling orders. This
involved using a computer printout of a wholesale truck driver’s order for products
to deliver the next day, to fetch from different areas in the dairy the required
number of cases and partial cases of various products to be loaded onto the driver’s
truck. However, while the driver’s order was placed in terms of individual units (e.g.,
particular numbers of quarts of skim milk, of half-pints of chocolate milk, and so
on), the computer printout converted these individual units into “case equivalents.”
For example, one driver might require 20 quarts of skim milk. However, one case
contains only 16 quarts. The computer printout for this part of the order would be 1
+ 4, indicating one full case plus 4 additional units.
Scribner found differences between novice and expert product assemblers in
the way in which these mixed numbers from the computer printout were converted
into gathered products. Novice workers would take a purely mental arithmetic
approach. As an example, consider the following protocol obtained from a
novice worker:
It was one case minus six, so there’s two, four, six, eight, ten, sixteen (determines
how many in a case, points finger as she counts). So there should be ten in here.
Two, four, six, ten (counts units as she moves them from full to empty). One case
minus six would be ten. (Scribner & Tobach, 1997, p. 302)
Elements of Embodied Cognitive Science 227