Thinking through Prompting: Cognitive Mediation in Human-AI Interaction

Abstract

Prompts are central to creative work with generative AI systems, yet they are often treated as simple and static interface components. This paper proposes a different view: prompts function as cognitive interfaces that mediate between user intent and algorithmic generation. Integrating theories of external cognition, interface semiotics, and pragmatist theories of situated inquiry, the paper provides a theoretical framing of prompting along three interrelated dimensions: semantic projection, compositional structuring, and interpretive negotiation. Through an empirical vignette from branding communication, I show how prompting can be seen as a dynamic representational activity, deeply embedded in cognitive processes of exploration, articulation, and iterative refinement. By reframing the prompt as a site of cognitive labor rather than as a static interface, this expands our understanding of interaction with generative AI as epistemic, semiotic, and situated.