Future Convergences: Technical Communication Research as Cognitive Science

Abstract

Cognitive scientist Andy Clark (2008) has argued, “the study of mind might … need to embrace a variety of different explanatory paradigms whose point of convergence lies in the production of intelligent behavior” (p. 95). This article offers technical communication research as such a paradigm and describes technical communication research past and present to argue that our disciplinary knowledge of tools, work environments, and performance assessment is a necessary complement to a more robust science of the mind.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thank-yous to both Andy Clark and Maarten Derksen for their generous feedback throughout this project. They helped me think about specific aspects of my argument, and, more importantly, they convinced me with their collegiality that such convergences are indeed possible.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nathaniel A. Rivers

Nathaniel A. Rivers is an assistant professor of English at Saint Louis University. His current research is in the area of material rhetorics. His work has appeared in the Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, Kairos, and Janus Head, and is forthcoming in College Composition and Communication.