Situating cognition

In this article, I describe an epistemological framework and an associated research method. This framework focuses on the structural relations of individual and setting as experienced by the individual. Due to the fact that individuals may be perceptually attuned to phenomena at different ranges and time scales, researchers who want to understand cognition have to follow this changing field of attention. My analysis consists in zooming to identify patterns that simultaneously occur at multiple levels. Zooming, therefore, embodies a reflexive relation to different figure-ground relations in the attentional field of the individuals I study. To exemplify my approach to research, I use data from a physics classroom where students learn to explain computer-animated microworld events in terms of Newtonian theory.