scholarly journals The role of cultural practices in the emergence of modern human intelligence

2008 ◽  
Vol 363 (1499) ◽  
pp. 2011-2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edwin Hutchins
Keyword(s):  
Embodied Cognition ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Human Activities ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Modern Human ◽  
Human Intelligence ◽  
Symbolic Representations ◽  
High Level ◽  
Human Brains

Innate cognitive capacities are orchestrated by cultural practices to produce high-level cognitive processes. In human activities, examples of this phenomenon range from everyday inferences about space and time to the most sophisticated reasoning in scientific laboratories. A case is examined in which chimpanzees enter into cultural practices with humans (in experiments) in ways that appear to enable them to engage in symbol-mediated thought. Combining the cultural practices perspective with the theories of embodied cognition and enactment suggests that the chimpanzees' behaviour is actually mediated by non-symbolic representations. The possibility that non-human primates can engage in cultural practices that give them the appearance of symbol-mediated thought opens new avenues for thinking about the coevolution of human culture and human brains.

scholarly journals Beyond the Flesh: Some Lessons from a Mole Cricket

2005 ◽  
Vol 11 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 233-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andy Clark
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Behavioral Outcomes ◽  
States Of Affairs ◽  
Human Thought ◽  
Mole Cricket ◽  
Concrete Objects ◽  
Embodied Cognitive Science ◽  
High Level ◽  
Perception Action

What do linguistic symbols do for minds like ours, and how (if at all) can basic embodied, dynamical, and situated approaches do justice to high-level human thought and reason? These two questions are best addressed together, since our answers to the first may inform the second. The key move in scaling up simple embodied cognitive science is, I argue, to take very seriously the potent role of human-built structures in transforming the spaces of human learning and reason. In particular, in this article I look at a range of cases involving what I dub surrogate situations. Here, we actively create restricted artificial environments that allow us to deploy basic perception-action-reason routines in the absence of their proper objects. Examples include the use of real-world models, diagrams, and other concrete external symbols to support dense looping interactions with a variety of stable external structures that stand in for the absent states of affairs. Language itself, I finally suggest, is the most potent and fundamental form of such surrogacy. Words are both cheap stand-ins for gross behavioral outcomes, and the concrete objects that structure new spaces for basic forms of learning and reason. A good hard look at surrogate situatedness thus turns the standard skeptical challenge on its head. But it raises important questions concerning what really matters about these new approaches, and it helps focus what I see as the major challenge for the future: how, in detail, to conceptualize the role of symbols (both internal and external) in dynamical cognitive processes.

scholarly journals The Critics and Contributions of Mathematical Philosophy in Hong Kong Secondary Education

2020 ◽  
pp. 16-26
Author(s):  
Mr. Lam Kai Shun
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Secondary Education ◽  
Mathematical Models ◽  
Human Activities ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Mathematical Proof ◽  
Symbolic Representations ◽  
Public Servant ◽  
The Relationship

There are various schools of mathematical philosophy. However, none of them can be founded on mathematics alone. At the same time, there are two types of mathematical proof styles: Dialectic and algorithm mathematical proof. The relationship between proof and philosophy is to study philosophical problems with mathematical models. This type of proof is important to Hong Kong Secondary education. In addition, teachers should explain the connection between mathematics-based subjects, such as physics, so that lessons are more interesting rather than technical. Mathematics relates to nearly all other subjects, and as such has the role of a ‘public servant’ when it comes to serving them. One role of mathematics is to act as a ‘rational’ instrument for various subjects. This can be shown in many ancient human activities, such as Daoism and Liu Hiu, together with their symbolic representations. These examples are similar to Jewish culture; when discussing confidence, Abraham is often mentioned due to being the “Father of Confidence”. Thus, it may be said that mathematics is more than just a servant—it is also a cultural subject that has been recorded throughout history. To conclude, other than mathematical proof, Hong Kong teachers should also allow students to learn the cultural context behind various topics and subjects.

Enactivist Interventions

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaun Gallagher
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Brain Function ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Mathematical Reasoning ◽  
Relational Dynamics ◽  
Close Coupling ◽  
Affective Processes ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Brain

Enactivist Interventions explores central issues in the contemporary debates about embodied cognition, addressing interdisciplinary questions about intentionality, representation, affordances, the role of affect, and the problems of perception and cognitive penetration, action and free will, higher-order cognition, and intersubjectivity. It argues for a rethinking of the concept of mind, drawing on pragmatism, phenomenology, and cognitive science. It interprets enactivism as a philosophy of nature that has significant methodological and theoretical implications for the scientific investigation of the mind. Enactivist Interventions argues that, like the basic phenomena of perception and action, sophisticated cognitive phenomena like reflection, imagining, and mathematical reasoning are best explained in terms of an affordance-based skilled coping. It thus argues for a continuity that runs between basic action, affectivity, and a rationality that in every case remains embodied. It also discusses recent predictive models of brain function and outlines an alternative, enactivist interpretation that emphasizes the close coupling of brain, body, and environment rather than a strong boundary that isolates the brain in its internal processes. The extensive relational dynamics that integrates the brain with the extra-neural body opens into an environment that is physical, social, and cultural and that recycles back into the enactive process. Cognitive processes are in the world, situated in affordance spaces defined across evolutionary, developmental, and individual histories, and are constrained by affective processes and normative dimensions of social and cultural practices.

scholarly journals The Evidence for Geary’s Theory on the Role of Mitochondrial Functioning in Human Intelligence Is Not Entirely Convincing

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna-Lena Schubert ◽  
Dirk Hagemann
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Intervention Studies ◽  
Cognitive Enhancement ◽  
Behavioral Genetics ◽  
Human Intelligence ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Genetics Research ◽  
Age Related

Geary (2018, 2019) suggested that heritable and environmentally caused differences in mitochondrial functioning affect the integrity and efficiency of neurons and supporting glia cells and may thus contribute to individual differences in higher-order cognitive functioning and physical health. In our comment, we want to pose three questions aimed at different aspects of Geary’s theory that critically evaluate his theory in the light of evidence from neurocognitive, cognitive enhancement, and behavioral genetics research. We question (1) if Geary’s theory explains why certain cognitive processes show a stronger age-related decline than others; (2) if intervention studies in healthy younger adults support the claim that variation in mitochondrial functioning underlies variation in human intelligence; and (3) if predictions arising from the matrilineal heredity of mitochondrial DNA are supported by behavioral genetics research. We come to the conclusion that there are likely many more biological and social factors contributing to variation in human intelligence than mitochondrial functioning.

Attentional Control and Performance Across Increasing Degrees of Unreliable Automation

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 1238-1241
Keyword(s):  
Task Performance ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Attentional Control ◽  
Positive Correlation ◽  
Out Of The Loop ◽  
And Performance ◽  
High Level ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
And Task

Automation is becoming increasingly pervasive across various technological domains. As this trend continues, work must be done to understand how humans interact with these automated systems. However, individual differences can influence performance during these interactions, particularly as automation becomes more complex, potentially leaving operators out-of-the-loop. Much of the current research investigates the role of working memory and performance across low and high levels of unreliable automation. There is little work investigating the connection between other high-level cognitive processes such as attentional control and performance. Foroughi et al. (2019) found a positive correlation between attentional control and task performance. However, they only included a low-level form of automation. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between attentional control and performance using increasing degrees of unreliable automation. Our results demonstrated a positive correlation between attentional control and performance using high-level unreliable automation.

scholarly journals Fear as an object of social production

2020 ◽  
pp. 16-23
Author(s):  
Dmitri V. Polianski
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Modern Human ◽  
Social Practices ◽  
Social Production ◽  
Paradoxical Situation ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Media ◽  
High Level

The article analyzes the socio-cultural trends associated with the experience of the emotion of fear. Social institutions and factors that contribute to the spread of new fears in society are identified. Special attention is paid to the role of the media. Fear is considered not only as an existential fate, but also as a person’s need. The industry and the social practices related to meeting this need are described. The article aims to explain the paradoxical situation of modern human: a combination of a high level of safety with a high level of anxiety in their social life.

scholarly journals Rhythms of the Body, Rhythms of the Brain: Respiration, Neural Oscillations, and Embodied Cognition

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Somogy Varga ◽  
Detlef H. Heck
Keyword(s):  
Embodied Cognition ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Cognitive Activity ◽  
The Body ◽  
General Mechanism ◽  
Rhythmic Contraction ◽  
Contraction And Relaxation ◽  
Epistemic Role ◽  
The Brain

AbstractIn spite of its importance as a life-defining rhythmic movement and its constant rhythmic contraction and relaxation of the body, respiration has not received attention in Embodied Cognition (EC) literature. Our paper aims to show that (1) respiration exerts significant and unexpected bottom-up influence on cognitive processes, and (2) it does so by modulating neural synchronization that underlies specific cognitive processes. Then, (3) we suggest that the particular example of respiration may function as a model for a general mechanism through which the body influences cognitive functioning. Finally, (4) we work out the implications for embodied cognition, draw a parallel to the role of gesture, and argue that respiration sometimes plays a double, pragmatic and epistemic, role, which reduces the cognitive load. In such cases, consistent with EC, the overall cognitive activity includes a loop-like interaction between neural and non-neural elements. (141 words)

Sport and communities in Luxembourg: The influence and role of sportive women in a small metropolis

2015 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 299-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Lamour ◽  
Laureen Vanni
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Analysis ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Human Activities ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Community Building ◽  
Cultural Practice ◽  
Late 19Th Century ◽  
Secular Society ◽  
And Gender

Sport, since the late 19th century, has been and remains one of the most continuous and enduring human activities. It is also known as a cultural practice mainly dominated by men. The objective of this article, based on a quantitative analysis of cultural practices in Luxembourg, is to question interactions between sport, community-building and gender. It is hypothesized that sport in multicultural metropolises is a hobby generated not only by men but also by women who are involved in a cosmopolitan and secular society.

scholarly journals Introduction to Special Issue on Music and Embodied Cognition

2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 159
Author(s):  
Kevin J Ryan
Keyword(s):  
Embodied Cognition ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Music Perception ◽  
Music Performance ◽  
The Body ◽  
Related Phenomenon ◽  
Unique Contribution ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Crucial Step

<p>THIS issue, broken into two volumes (Vol. 9, No. 3-4, 2014), offers a unique contribution to contemporary research on embodied approaches to music perception and related phenomenon.&nbsp; While the role of the body has often been acknowledged in a variety of disciplinary contexts, particularly in the domain of music performance, the 4E movement in cognitive science &ndash; i.e. interrelated paradigms that study cognitive processes as embodied, embedded, enactive, and extended phenomenon - has pushed advances in previously underexplored areas.&nbsp; Critically analyzing the benefits (and limits) of embodied approaches to the perception of music and related artistic practices is a crucial step for expanding the conceptual and empirical foundations of the 4E movement, as well as addressing related concerns for musicologists and music scholars.</p>

Imagining the Emergence of the Human: Reflections on Chris Johnson's Late Work

Paragraph ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-57
Author(s):  
Terence Cave
Keyword(s):  
Embodied Cognition ◽  
Human Intelligence ◽  
Late Work ◽  
Cognitive Mediation ◽  
Cognitive Studies ◽  
The Relationship

This paper offers a series of commentaries and reflections on certain of Christopher Johnson's lines of argument as perceived from the perspective of cognitive studies, with particular reference to the notion of embodied cognition. It opens with a brief outline of his work on the evolution of human intelligence in the context of the conceptually parallel question of the evolution of cognition. Subsequently, it raises questions about what this account does not include — notably an anthropological view of the role of literature — and what difference that absence might make. It further proposes that a spectrum view of the relationship between ‘body’ and ‘mind’ might helpfully supplement a view which is by implication oppositional and hierarchical. The overall concern of the paper is to reflect on what it might mean to ‘mediate thought’, and more specifically on the economy of such (cognitive) mediation.

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