Crucial question with regard to the difference between embodied cognition and the traditional way of thinking:
(2)
- To what extent are there any interactions between cognition (which takes place in the brain) and the body (in which the brain is “housed” and through which we are connected to the outside world)?
- To what extent do our cognitive systems operate (in)dependently from the systems involved in perception and action?
Traditional view perceptual systems
Perceptual systems pick up information from the environment and pass it on to separate systems which support the various cognitive functions…
– Language and reading comprehension
– Memory
– Decisionmaking
– Etc.
Traditional view computer metaphor
– Computationalism / Computer metaphor of the human mind/brain cognition
– Cognitive system is the central processor
• It transforms sensory input in abstract symbols
• The symbols are manipulated according to a set of fixed rules (algorithms)
– No further distinction is made between the brain (≈the computer) and the rest of the body, in particular the senses and limbs (≈ the computer’s peripheral equipment, such as the camera, microphone, monitior, speakers, printer, et cetera)
– Interactions / experiences without side world are less important
– Perceptual and motor systems (which connect our body to the external world) are not essential to understanding central cognitive processes
Embodied Cognition: central claim
cognition is rooted in the perceptual and motor systems which connect our body to the external world
Thinking/visualizing/reading/etc. about an object/action recruits most of the brain areas activated by actually seeing/performing it!
What is wrong and right about cognition and perception etc
• WRONG: Perceptual systems pick up information from the environment and pass it on to separate systems that support the various cognitive functions. (i.e. language, memory, thought, etc.)
• CORRECT:
Mental representations /concepts are made of / grounded in perceptual symbols, i.e. neural patterns/recordings/traces that are formed and stored in perceptual and motor (and emotion‐ related) brain areas during actual experience and interaction with the environment, and which can later be (partially) re‐activated/re‐ enacted (as a perceptual simulation of that concept) for purposes of language, thought, meaning construction, etc.
Embodied Cognition: Reading
- While reading, the brain “simulates” the visual scenes, motor actions and emotions described in a text
- Text is connected to the sensory, motor and emotional memories (↔ experiences) which are stored in the brain
Modality‐specific brain activation
Landscape → Jump → Bang → Pain → Perfume → Diner →
But also..?
Landscape → visual Jump → motor Bang → auditory Pain → sensory Perfume → olfactory Diner → taste
But also vice versa: action and perception exert an influence on cognition (thinking, memory, understanding, reacting, decision making, social interacting, et cetera)
Gestures → Learning of words
Making iconic gestures during the encoding of new words has a positive effect on remembering the verbal information (“enactment”‐effect)
No memory effects for meaningless gesture
Actions on objects → Comprehension
Especially young readers give meaning to text (and remember it better) by acting it out, manipulating objects/toys (e.g. Glenberg et al, 2004, 2009)
‐ Idem for mathematical word problem solving (Goldin‐ Meadow et al, 2009)
Movements → Math learning
People represent (the meaning of) numbers in the brain as a “mental number line” from left to right
Making magnitudes experienceable (both motorically and visually) → Math learning
Numerical size and body‐related size information are represented together in the brain
Gestures → Spatal problem solving↑
Gestures can improve spatial cognition
Making deliberate gestures (in the gesture‐encouraged group)
facilitates the performance on a mental rotation task …
Gestures → Problem solving↑
• Problem‐solving (two‐ string problem)
• Gestures
↓
Arm movements
—> (task‐irrelevant exercises during the break of the experiment)
which are congruent or incongruent to the solution of the problem
