Beyond Single‐Mindedness: A Figure‐Ground Reversal for the Cognitive Sciences
Cognitive Science, vol. 47, pp. e13230
Abstract
A fundamental fact about human minds is that they are never truly alone: all minds are steeped in situated interaction. That social interaction matters is recognized by any experimentalist who seeks to exclude its influence by studying individuals in isolation. On this view, interaction complicates cognition. Here, we explore the more radical stance that interaction co-constitutes cognition: that we benefit from looking beyond single minds toward cognition as a process involving interacting minds. All around the cognitive sciences, there are approaches that put interaction center stage. Their diverse and pluralistic origins may obscure the fact that collectively, they harbor insights and methods that can respecify foundational assumptions and fuel novel interdisciplinary work. What might the cognitive sciences gain from stronger interactional foundations? This represents, we believe, one of the key questions for the future. Writing as a transdisciplinary collective assembled from across the classic cognitive science hexagon and beyond, we highlight the opportunity for a figure-ground reversal that puts interaction at the heart of cognition. The interactive stance is a way of seeing that deserves to be a key part of the conceptual toolkit of cognitive scientists.
Authors 28
-
Mark Dingemanse corresponding
Affiliation as printed
Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University
See Author Notes for author affiliations
-
Affiliation as printed
Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University
-
Radboud University Nijmegen · Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics
Affiliation as printed
Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University
Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics
-
Affiliation as printed
Discourse and Rhetoric Group, Loughborough University
-
Affiliation as printed
Centre for Linguistics, Leiden University
-
University College Dublin · Mozilla Foundation
Affiliation as printed
Mozilla Foundation
School of Computer Science, University College Dublin
-
National Institute for Physiological Sciences · Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry
Affiliation as printed
Independent Max Planck Research Group for Social Neuroscience, Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry
National Institute for Physiological Sciences
-
Affiliation as printed
Paris Artificial Intelligence Research Institute
School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University
-
Affiliation as printed
Department of Language and Linguistics, University of Essex
-
Affiliation as printed
Department of Psychology, Franklin and Marshall College
-
University of the Basque Country
Affiliation as printed
IAS‐Research Center for Mind, Life and Society, Department of Philosophy, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU)
IAS-Research Center for Mind, Life and Society, Department of Philosophy, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU)
-
University of St Andrews · Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Affiliation as printed
Arché, University of St. Andrews
Department of Philosophy, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
-
Affiliation as printed
Department of Linguistics, The University of Sydney
-
Aarhus University · University of Pennsylvania
Affiliation as printed
Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science & Semiotics, Aarhus University
Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University
Linguistic Data Consortium, University of Pennsylvania
-
Affiliation as printed
Linguistics and Theory of Science, University of Gothenburg
-
University of California San Diego
Affiliation as printed
Department of Cognitive Science, University of California San Diego
-
Technical University of Denmark
Affiliation as printed
Section for Cognitive Systems, DTU Compute, Technical University of Denmark
-
Affiliation as printed
Tizard Centre, University of Kent
-
Affiliation as printed
Human Interactivity and Language Lab, Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw
-
Affiliation as printed
Department of Psychology, University of Portsmouth
-
University of California San Diego
Affiliation as printed
Department of Cognitive Science, University of California San Diego
-
Affiliation as printed
Department of Linguistics, University of Potsdam
-
Affiliation as printed
Research Unit for Robophilosophy and Integrative Social Robotics, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University
-
Loughborough University · London School of Economics and Political Science
Affiliation as printed
Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science, London School of Economics
Discourse and Rhetoric Group, Loughborough University
-
Affiliation as printed
Department of Sociology, Lancaster University
-
Affiliation as printed
Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science & Semiotics, Aarhus University
Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University
-
Dartmouth College · Santa Fe Institute
Affiliation as printed
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College
Santa Fe Institute
-
Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats · Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Affiliation as printed
Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Cited by 70 stored of 72
No patents citing this paper on Lens.org (checked 2026-10-11).