Laboratory Studies Based On Distributed Cognition

The point of traditional scientific view was that: Science was a rational and pure intellectual activity which was independent of society and culture, while knowledge was the collection of propositions which were faited accompli and proved to be true. However, scientific sociology, sociology of scientific knowledge profoundly study the social nature of science and knowledge ,thus completely subvert that kind of scientific and knowledge view of purely objectivism and rationalism. Then Science is regarded as a public utility, and knowledge is the product of dynamical systems of scientific practice. Therefore, scientific knowledge is not just the results of the rational and objective representation of the world by individual's thinking, rather, knowledge was discovered and produced by a particular system - that is, the laboratory system, this system involved diversity elements' (such as the cognitive subjects(researchers), the experimental equipment and socio-cultural background)complex interaction. Therefore, if one wants to understand the nature of knowledge, he has to inspect the knowledge system of discovery and production, while the nature of knowledge are bound to apply the characteristics of the system. Contemporary laboratory research is one of the study approach, which describes and analyses the elements and activities of this system, in order to deeply reveal the sociality of knowledge.On the other hand, the study of "Second generation cognitive science" have shown that, cognition is not just formed in the mind of cognitive subject, but is distributed and extended to a larger cognitive system which not only includes the subjects, also includes the natural objects and artifacts that extend the cognitive capacity of subjects, as well as the language system of the public, natural context and socio-cultural context. Cognitive process is done by a cognitive system.Through the comparative study, we found that the knowledge production system is isomorphic to the cognitive system. According to that point, this article tries to further deepen the Laboratory study through theory of Distributed Cognition; then builds a mutually beneficial bridge between the knowledge production system and cognitive system study.