Cognitive Artifact

An artificial device — physical or digital — designed or appropriated to maintain, display, or operate on information in ways that support human cognitive performance. The term was codified by Don Norman to describe how objects like calendars, shopping lists, sticky notes, calculators, and timelines extend memory, attention, and reasoning beyond what the unaided mind can hold. In accessibility work, cognitive artefacts are central to supporting users with memory, attention, or executive-function differences: paper rosters during a videoconference, wall calendars in peripheral view, smartphone alarms, and written notes are not peripheral aids but load-bearing infrastructure. Distributed cognition treats such artefacts as integral components of a cognitive system rather than as external props.