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Distributed Cognition and the Experience of Presence in the Mars Exploration Rover Mission

Although research on presence in virtual environments has increased in the last few decades due to the rise of immersive technologies, it has not examined how it is achieved in distributed cognitive systems. To this end, we examine the sense of presence on the Martian landscape experienced by scient...

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Autores principales: Chiappe, Dan, Vervaeke, John
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8255671/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34234725
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.689932
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author Chiappe, Dan
Vervaeke, John
author_facet Chiappe, Dan
Vervaeke, John
author_sort Chiappe, Dan
collection PubMed
description Although research on presence in virtual environments has increased in the last few decades due to the rise of immersive technologies, it has not examined how it is achieved in distributed cognitive systems. To this end, we examine the sense of presence on the Martian landscape experienced by scientific team members in the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission (2004–2018). How this was achieved is not obvious because the sensorimotor coupling that typically underlies presence in mundane situations was absent. Nonetheless, we argue that the Three-Level model can provide a framework for exploring how presence was achieved. This account distinguishes between proto-presence, core-presence, and extended-presence, each level dependent on being able to respond effectively to affordances at a particular level of abstraction, operating at different timescales. We maintain that scientists' sense of presence on Mars involved core-presence and extended-presence rather than proto-presence. Extended-presence involved successfully establishing distal intentions (D-intentions) during strategic planning, i.e., long term conceptual goals. Core-presence involved successfully enacting proximal intentions (P-intentions) during tactical planning by carrying out specific actions on a particular target, abstracting away from sensorimotor details. This was made possible by team members “becoming the rover,” which enhanced their ability to identify relevant affordances revealed through images. We argue, however, that because Mars exploration is a collective activity involving shared agency by a distributed cognitive system, the experience of presence was a collective presence of the team through the rover.
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spelling pubmed-82556712021-07-06 Distributed Cognition and the Experience of Presence in the Mars Exploration Rover Mission Chiappe, Dan Vervaeke, John Front Psychol Psychology Although research on presence in virtual environments has increased in the last few decades due to the rise of immersive technologies, it has not examined how it is achieved in distributed cognitive systems. To this end, we examine the sense of presence on the Martian landscape experienced by scientific team members in the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission (2004–2018). How this was achieved is not obvious because the sensorimotor coupling that typically underlies presence in mundane situations was absent. Nonetheless, we argue that the Three-Level model can provide a framework for exploring how presence was achieved. This account distinguishes between proto-presence, core-presence, and extended-presence, each level dependent on being able to respond effectively to affordances at a particular level of abstraction, operating at different timescales. We maintain that scientists' sense of presence on Mars involved core-presence and extended-presence rather than proto-presence. Extended-presence involved successfully establishing distal intentions (D-intentions) during strategic planning, i.e., long term conceptual goals. Core-presence involved successfully enacting proximal intentions (P-intentions) during tactical planning by carrying out specific actions on a particular target, abstracting away from sensorimotor details. This was made possible by team members “becoming the rover,” which enhanced their ability to identify relevant affordances revealed through images. We argue, however, that because Mars exploration is a collective activity involving shared agency by a distributed cognitive system, the experience of presence was a collective presence of the team through the rover. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-06-21 /pmc/articles/PMC8255671/ /pubmed/34234725 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.689932 Text en Copyright © 2021 Chiappe and Vervaeke. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Chiappe, Dan
Vervaeke, John
Distributed Cognition and the Experience of Presence in the Mars Exploration Rover Mission
title Distributed Cognition and the Experience of Presence in the Mars Exploration Rover Mission
title_full Distributed Cognition and the Experience of Presence in the Mars Exploration Rover Mission
title_fullStr Distributed Cognition and the Experience of Presence in the Mars Exploration Rover Mission
title_full_unstemmed Distributed Cognition and the Experience of Presence in the Mars Exploration Rover Mission
title_short Distributed Cognition and the Experience of Presence in the Mars Exploration Rover Mission
title_sort distributed cognition and the experience of presence in the mars exploration rover mission
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8255671/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34234725
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.689932
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