Abstract: Engineering innovation subjects are the initiators of organization-based innovation activities. Distributed cognition theory holds that cognition is distributed in participants， tools， environment and culture， and it stresses the presence of cognition. Distributed cognition offers a methodology to understand how engineering innovation subjects achieve innovation. Moreover， it proposes and verifies the likelihood of engineering innovation subjects distributed cognition， and analyzes its characteristics of innovation objective， organizational interaction， total factor， embodiment and situationality. The ways that engineering innovation subjects practice with distributed cognition in project decision-making， designing， engineering and construction process help to understand fully the process of project innovation.

Key words: engineering innovation subject, innovation process, distributed cognition