Distributed Cognition refers to a framework for understanding cognition that spreads out and extends beyond the individual. It centers on the notion that knowledge and information processing happen in the environment and context--rather than the individual alone--through a set of interrelated agents, artifacts, and activities. In other words, the co-construction of meaning, understanding, and action with the environment and other agents, forms the basis of a larger system of mental activity that extends cognitive processes beyond the self.

See also: artificial intelligence, collective intelligence, feedback loop, possibility space, simulated thinking