Situative+Perspective

According to Greeno (1997, pg 11-12), the situative perspective constructs a theory that "takes the theory of social and ecological interaction as its basis and builds toward a more comprehensive theory by developing increasingly detailed analyses of structures of information that are produced by the interactions the people have with each other and with the material and representational resources in their environments."

This is in contrast to the cognitive perspective which "takes the theory of individual cognition as its basis and builds toward a broader theory incrementally developing analyses of additional components of situations that are considered contexts for cognitive processes." Greeno (1997, pg 11-12)

In this way, Greeno explains that situative perspective explains individual cognition and behavior through the process of interaction while cognitive perspective explains social interactions through individual perception, goals, inferences (Vera and Simon, 1993).

Greeno believes that this difference makes the situative perspective more desirable in that it will result in a more integrated view of social interaction and cognitive activity.