Right now you are reading a sentence. Earlier, you might have been looking at a realistic picture, such as a photograph, or an outline drawing in a set of instructions. If you are a programmer, you work with sentence-like structures, such as code, or a system diagram. These are all graphic representations. To varying degrees, the effectiveness of every graphic representation relies on its ability to convey the designer’s intended meaning and elicit the intended reaction from its audience. However, the design of graphic representations, even in technical domains such as visual programming language design or interactive information visualization, currently relies heavily on general principles based solely on practice, intuition, and informal measures of effectiveness from the applied art and craft of design (as opposed to scientific analysis or theory). There is an increasing demand for a scientific understanding of design and its evaluation from stakeholders (who seek evidence for effectiveness) and designers (who seek to advance their field). Because both the creation of graphic displays and their perception are literally embodied experiences, a model was developed with an embodiment orientation, specifically based on how graphics are perceptually and cognitively processed. In my research, I found that graphic representations are constituted of two properties, pictorial and symbolic information, that emerge through two interrelated aspects of perception. In sighted individuals, for example, every graphic representation makes use of biological capabilities to process visual sensation (i.e., light hitting the retina), which are processed in relation to culturally-learned capabilities (i.e., writing). I observed how graphic representations – such as pictures, diagrams, and sentences – are “naturally selected” (i.e., during different phases of design or problem solving). From these observations, I developed a model that distinguishes and predicts the effectiveness of pictures, diagrams, and sentences, in terms of how object relations and attributes are pictorially or symbolically represented, relative to the functional roles of those representations, contexts, and in some cases, individual perceptual-cognitive differences among perceivers. This model is a step toward a science of graphics that could lead to evaluation techniques for information systems, theories for inclusive design, and ergonomically designed software programming tools.

This study explores the concept of feedback from various perspectives in psychology and cognitive science. Specifically, the theories of ecological psychology, situated and Distributed Cognition, Cognitive Systems Engineering and Embodied cognition are investigated and compared. Cognitive Systems Engineering provides a model of feedback and related constructs, to understand human behavior in complex working environments. Earlier theories such as ecological psychology, considered feedback as direct perception. Situated cognition clearly inherits ideas from ecological psychology, whereas distributed cognition provides a deeper understanding of feedback through artifact use. Cognitive Systems Engineering provides a systematic view of feedback and control. This framework is a suitable perspective to understanding feedback in human-machine settings.

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L’objectif principal de ce travail était de montrer empiriquement l’influence des contraintes culturelles sur la motricité humaine grâce à la mise en œuvre d’une expérience standardisée dans différents contextes culturels. L’exemple choisi est le tournage de poterie. Il s’agit d’une habileté artisanale ancienne qui est encore pratiquée dans différentes sociétés. En nous appuyant sur le cadre théorique de la psychologie écologique, nous avons étudié comment, à partir d’environnements culturels distincts —en France et dans deux communautés différentes en Inde— une même tâche (le tournage) est réalisée. La tâche expérimentale consistait à reproduire quatre formes dans deux masses. Deux expériences d’interversion ont également permis d’approfondir les résultats. En étudiant les stratégies d’action et le résultat final à partir des productions, on a pu mettre en évidence un ensemble de traits invariants dans les différents groupes. Ces invariants peuvent être interprétés comme une réponse aux contraintes de la tâche. Ainsi, quel que soit l’environnement culturel dans lequel le potier a appris le tournage, ce sont les principes du tournage qui ont été appris, indépendamment des conditions spécifiques d’exécution. En même temps, les résultats ont aussi montré des modulations culturelles dans la géométrie des productions et dans l’organisation temporelle de l’action. Il est possible d’interpréter ces variations comme des adaptations aux contraintes culturelles (matérielles et sociales) spécifiques à chaque groupe. En outre, nous avons observé que l’influence des contraintes sociales était aussi prégnante que celle des contraintes matérielles. Cette dernière observation nous a amené à proposer un projet de recherche postdoctorale ayant pour but d’analyser l’influence des modèles d’action (véhiculés par l’environnement social lors de l’apprentissage) sur les stratégies d’action du potier. / The main goal of our study was to provide an empirical demonstration of the influence of cultural constraints on motor performance. We focused on wheel throwing, an ancient craft skill that is still practiced in many societies. Inspired by the theoretical framework of the ecological approach to perception and action, we studied how a same task (throwing ceramic vessels on a wheel) was realised in different cultural environments in France and in two distinct communities in India. This study was made possible by the application of a standardised experimental approach within the different cultural contexts. The task consisted in reproducing four forms in two masses. The results were further developed by crossing experimental conditions between the two Indian populations. By analysing the action strategies and the vessels produced we were able to highlight a set of invariant characteristics. These invariants are interpreted as potters’ responses to the task constraints related of throwing a vessel. We suggest that all potters studied have acquired the principles underlying wheel throwing, independent of the (cultural) specifics of the conditions in which they evolve. At the same time, our results also revealed cultural modulations in the geometry of the vessels thrown and in the temporal organisation of the throwing activity. Such variations are interpreted as adaptations to the operative (material and social) cultural constraints specific to each group. Interestingly, social constraints were found to be as influential as material constraints (such as the type of wheel used). This latter observation led us to propose a post-doctoral research programme designed to analyse the influence of social action models (promulgated by the social environment during learning) on potter’s action strategies.

Limiting cities’ negative impact for global sustainability suggests compact city development. However, extensive and accessible urban nature is important for urban dwellers’ wellbeing. Aligning efforts to make cities locally and globally sustainable means resolving this conflict. This thesis applies spatial analysis of urban dwellers’ regularly occurring experiences, as these are important wellbeing indicators, looking specifically at Stockholm, Sweden. The aim is to contribute to a nuanced understanding of urban environments’ influence on urban dwellers’ experiences. Paper I investigates how accessibility to various environment features impact the probability that people have positive or negative experiences. Paper II applies resilience principles to investigate what experiences exist together in neighbourhoods. The environment have considerable influence on people’s experiences. Some common indicators in urban planning display weak relationships with experiential outcome, while other less common ones have larger effects. Neighbourhood compositions of experiences display consistent patterns, both spatially across Stockholm and with respect to resilience principles. Many neighbourhoods harbour diverse positive experiences, while a few are dominated by negative ones. The results suggest that human-environment relations should be given more consideration in urban discourse and urban planning. A relational approach could improve urban dweller’s experiences, and positively influence their wellbeing. For urban planning to be able to handle the complexity of such an approach, I suggest that resilience principles can be heuristics for an urban development that does not compromise people’s experiences. The methodological framework developed here can be applied in other cities, as it can identify specific places for transformation, but also increase knowledge of the interplay between urban environments and people’s experiences across different contexts. / För att begränsa städers negativa påverkan på global hållbarhet förordas ofta kompakta stadsmiljöer. För att säkra stadsbors välbefinnande krävs emellertid stora och tillgängliga naturområden. Denna konflikt måste lösas för att nå en stadsutveckling som bidrar till både lokal och global hållbarhet. Denna avhandling består av två studier av Stockholm som tillämpar rumslig analys av människors upplevelser, då dessa är viktiga indikatorer för välbefinnande. Den undersöker hur tillgänglighet till olika miljöfaktorer är relaterade till positiva och negativa upplevelser. Vidare tillämpar den resiliensprinciper för att undersöka vilka upplevelser som samexisterar på områdesskala. Stadsmiljön har betydande påverkan på människors upplevelser. Vissa vanliga indikatorer inom stadsplanering visar svaga samband med upplevelser, medan andra mindre vanliga har större effekter. Sammansättningar av upplevelser på områdesskala uppvisar genomgående mönster, både rumsligt och i förhållande till resiliensprinciper. Många områden innehåller en mångfald av positiva upplevelser, medan ett fåtal domineras av negativa upplevelser. Resultaten visar att relationer mellan människa och miljö bör ta en mer central plats i stadsplaneringen, då detta erbjuder möjligheter att förbättra stadsbors upplevelser. Resiliensprinciper kan fungera som tumregler inom stadsplaneringen för en stadsutveckling som inte äventyrar människors upplevelser. Metoden som utvecklats här kan appliceras i andra städer, då den kan identifiera specifika platser för omvandling, men också leda till djupare förståelse för samspelet mellan stadsmiljöer och människors upplevelser i olika sammanhang.

Les partisans de l’approche énactive soutiennent que la cognition se constitue à travers l’histoire des différentes formes d'interaction (biologique, sensorimotrice, intercorporelle, linguistique, etc.) entre un vivant et son environnement. Ces interactions ne sont pas aléatoires, mais des activités obéissant à certaines normes que les énactivistes appellent sense-making. La cognition est, de ce point de vue, une forme de sense-making. Malgré les avantages indéniables que confère une telle perspective pour étudier la cognition, la présente thèse développe un point de vue critique par rapport à l’approche énactive et soutient qu'il est nécessaire d'approfondir notre compréhension de la dimension écologique du sense-making. Le but principal de la thèse est en conséquence de montrer que l'environnement joue un rôle encore plus important que l’approche énactive ne lui attribue habituellement. En m'engageant de manière critique dans le répertoire conceptuel de la cognition énactive, de la phénoménologie et des approches écologiques de la cognition, l’objectif de cette thèse consiste à poser les bases conceptuelles d'une approche énactive-écologique de la cognition. Pour ce faire, la thèse s’attèle à mettre de l’avant trois idées principales. La première consiste à redéfinir le concept du sense-making : contrairement à la conception qui s’est traditionnellement imposée dans le mouvement énactif, nous allons démontrer qu’il s’agit d’un phénomène de développement (et non de création) de normes. La rencontre du corps et du monde est toujours ancrée dans un champ normatif prédéfini, de sorte que nous devons réévaluer le rôle que joue l'environnement dans les processus de sense-making. En effet, si les agents se retrouvent toujours-déjà plongés dans un champ normatif (et non dans un environnement purement causal et physique), il faut alors reconnaître que l'environnement joue un rôle actif dans la constitution et l'auto-transformation des normes de sense-making. La deuxième idée poursuit dans cette veine et porte sur cette nouvelle conception de l'environnement, qui est ici défini comme un champ normatif actif, incarnant une tension entre le passé habituel du système agent-environnement et les contingences incessantes des événements du monde qui poussent le système vers leur auto-transformation et développement. La troisième idée principale de cette thèse consiste en une description holistique du champ d'action des agents (un lieu énactif) et des normes édictées (enacted) par des processus de sense-making sur le terrain (normes de lieu). Une esquisse générale du lieu énactif montre que les activités de sense-making sont liées à des processus écologiques qui enchevêtrent de multiples agents et localités matérielles dans un réseau écologique local. Ces réseaux écologiques forment une unité systémique et résiliente qui se déploie dans le temps avec les habitants du lieu, et fonctionne comme un champ normatif qui contraint et motive l'auto-transformation de chaque système agent-environnement / Supporters of autonomist enactivism or the enactive approach claim that cognition is a phenomenon constituted by the historical development of different forms of interaction (biological, sensorimotor, intercorporeal, and linguistic) between living bodies and their environments. For autonomist enactivists, the nature of these interactions is not entirely predetermined by general laws of causation but by norms enacted in the historical path of the agent-environment system, and thanks to processes of sense-making. Cognition is, from the enactivist standpoint, a form of sense-making. While there are multiple advantages in holding such perspective to study mind and cognition, this thesis develops a critical point of view and argues that it is necessary to deepen our understanding of the ecological dimension of sense-making. Specifically, the thesis aims to show that the environment plays a more critical role than autonomist enactivism usually attributes to it. By drawing on and critically engaging with the conceptual repertoire of enactive cognition, phenomenology, and ecological approaches to cognition, my objective is to set the conceptual foundations for an enactive-ecological approach to cognition. For this task, I propose three interrelated ideas. The first redefines sense-making as a phenomenon of norm development. The most common descriptions of sense-making involve the emergence of meaning from raw physical matter thanks to the activity of living organisms. As norm development, by contrast, sense-making refers to a constant enactment and re-enactment of norms of interaction from other pregiven norms, previously enacted in the past of the agent-environment system. I argue that the encounter of the body and the world is permanently embedded in a pregiven normative field and never in an abstract void where raw physical interactions occur. From this standpoint, we need, however, to re-evaluate the role that the environment plays in sense-making processes. If agents find themselves immersed in normative fields and not in raw physical landscapes, then the environment has a more active role for the constitution and self-transformation of sense-making norms than autonomist enactivists have acknowledged. In this vein, the second main idea of this thesis concerns the environment as an active normative field that incarnates a tension between the habitual past of the agent-environment system and the ongoing contingencies of worldly events that push the system to their self-transformation and development. The third main idea of this thesis consists of a holistic description of the field of action of agents (enactive place) and the norms enacted by processes of sense-making in the field (place-norms). A general sketch of enactive place shows that sense-making is tied to processes that entangle multiple agents and material localities into a local ecological web. An enactive place constitutes a systemic and resilient unity that unfolds in time altogether with its inhabitants, working as a normative field that constrains and motivates the self-transformation of each agent-environment system. Bodies are therefore part of wider unities of historical development: places.

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