SENSICAL TRANSLATIONS: THREE CASE STUDIES IN APPLIED COGNITIVE COMMUNICATIONS

• Published in: Annals of anthropological practice Vol. 36; no. 1; pp. 45 - 67
• Main Authors: Lindland, Eric H., Kendall-Taylor, Nathaniel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Malden, USA Blackwell Publishing Inc 01.05.2012; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: Cognition & reasoning; Cognitive psychology; Communication; Cultural anthropology
• ISSN: 2153-957X; 2153-9588
• DOI: 10.1111/j.2153-9588.2012.01092.x

The FrameWorks Institute applies cultural models and metaphor theory from cognitive anthropology to develop communications devices that reframe public understandings and discourses on social problems. This article traces three case studies, in the areas of child mental health, budgets and taxes, and environmental health, where substantial gaps between scientific and public knowledge were identified, and describes the research process to develop "explanatory metaphors" to close those gaps and cultivate more accurate and expansive patterns of public thinking. Three distinct cognitively attuned communications tasks are described: (1) foregrounding an extant but recessive cognitive model prominent among the public; (2) filling a domain-specific "cognitive lacuna" in public thinking by introducing a modified version of an existing model from a kindred cognitive domain; and (3) building off or working around an existing dominant cognitive model that is consistent with expert knowledge but incomplete. The article concludes with observations on how the practice of applied communications has challenged and strengthened our theory of culture and cognition. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]