A Tutorial towards Theory Formalization in (Social) Embodiment

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Szabelska ◽  
Thorsten Michael Erle ◽  
Olivier Dujols ◽  
Hans IJzerman ◽  
Alessandro Sparacio
Keyword(s):  
Social Cognition ◽  
Embodied Cognition ◽  
Core Temperature ◽  
Social Behaviors ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Grounded Cognition ◽  
The Body ◽  
Social Thermoregulation ◽  
Human Thought

Embodied – or grounded - cognition frameworks assume that human thought is affected by inputs from the bodily modalities and the environment and emerged in response to amodal approaches. But the embodied cognition literature, generally speaking, lacks the formal theorizing that allows for specific predictions about relations between body and mind. This problem is amplified by the fact that psychological research has encountered replication problems, challenges to validity of measures and manipulations, and overgeneralization of obtained findings to populations and measures that were not tested. This chapter provides a tutorial on how the field can move towards formalized theories of embodied social cognition. We rely on research on social thermoregulation – the idea that social behaviors protect the body’s core temperature – as a template for this. The chapter addresses the important questions of how to separate noise from signal in embodiment research, how to create reliable and valid measures, and how to appropriately draw conclusions about the generalizability of obtained findings. We hope that following these recommendations will help theories in embodiment to become more formal, allowing for precise predictions about interactions between the body and human (social) cognition.

scholarly journals Looping Effects and the Cognitive Science of Mindfulness Meditation

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evan Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Neural Networks ◽  
Social Cognition ◽  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Embodied Cognition ◽  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Mindfulness Meditation ◽  
The Body ◽  
Cultural Environment ◽  
Directed Action ◽  
The Brain

Cognitive neuroscience tends to conceptualize mindfulness meditation as inner observation of a private mental realm of thoughts, feelings, and body sensations, and tries to model mindfulness as instantiated in neural networks visible through brain imaging tools such as EEG and fMRI. This approach confuses the biological conditions for mindfulness with mindfulness itself, which, as classically described, consists in the integrated exercise of a whole host of cognitive and bodily skills in situated and ethically directed action. From an enactive perspective, mindfulness depends on internalized social cognition and is a mode of skillful, embodied cognition that depends directly not only on the brain, but also on the rest of the body and the physical, social, and cultural environment.

scholarly journals Looping Effects and the Cognitive Science of Mindfulness Meditation

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evan Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Neural Networks ◽  
Social Cognition ◽  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Embodied Cognition ◽  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Mindfulness Meditation ◽  
The Body ◽  
Cultural Environment ◽  
Directed Action ◽  
The Brain

Cognitive neuroscience tends to conceptualize mindfulness meditation as inner observation of a private mental realm of thoughts, feelings, and body sensations, and tries to model mindfulness as instantiated in neural networks visible through brain imaging tools such as EEG and fMRI. This approach confuses the biological conditions for mindfulness with mindfulness itself, which, as classically described, consists in the integrated exercise of a whole host of cognitive and bodily skills in situated and ethically directed action. From an enactive perspective, mindfulness depends on internalized social cognition and is a mode of skillful, embodied cognition that depends directly not only on the brain, but also on the rest of the body and the physical, social, and cultural environment.

An Innovative Information Technology Educational Framework Based on Embodied Cognition and Sensory Marketing

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 85-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack M. Rappaport ◽  
Stephen B. Richter ◽  
Dennis T. Kennedy
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Embodied Cognition ◽  
Evaluation Process ◽  
Grounded Cognition ◽  
The Body ◽  
Educational Framework ◽  
Sensory Marketing ◽  
It Education ◽  
Survey Results ◽  
Interdisciplinary Study

This article describes and implements an innovative framework for information technology (IT) education. The proposed framework creates metaphors for various IT topics using music. The theory of embodied cognition or grounded cognition argues that all aspects of cognition, including decision making, are shaped by aspects of the body. Various theories of neuroscience, the interdisciplinary study of the nervous system, are used to explain how the brain processes the information and multi-modal stimuli generated by the authors' model. The framework proposed in this article can also be considered a form of sensory marketing, which is also based upon embodied cognition, theories of neuroscience and the cognitive significance of metaphors. The model was implemented at the secondary and university levels using both a formative and summative evaluation process. The survey results support the theoretical arguments supplied by many theories of embodied cognition and neuroscience.

scholarly journals Scalable co-optimization of morphology and control in embodied machines

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (143) ◽  
pp. 20170937 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick Cheney ◽  
Josh Bongard ◽  
Vytas SunSpiral ◽  
Hod Lipson
Keyword(s):  
Embodied Cognition ◽  
Initial Conditions ◽  
Control Policy ◽  
Sensorimotor Control ◽  
Body Plan ◽  
The Body ◽  
Test Bed ◽  
Local Optima ◽  
Close Coupling ◽  
And Control

Evolution sculpts both the body plans and nervous systems of agents together over time. By contrast, in artificial intelligence and robotics, a robot's body plan is usually designed by hand, and control policies are then optimized for that fixed design. The task of simultaneously co-optimizing the morphology and controller of an embodied robot has remained a challenge. In psychology, the theory of embodied cognition posits that behaviour arises from a close coupling between body plan and sensorimotor control, which suggests why co-optimizing these two subsystems is so difficult: most evolutionary changes to morphology tend to adversely impact sensorimotor control, leading to an overall decrease in behavioural performance. Here, we further examine this hypothesis and demonstrate a technique for ‘morphological innovation protection’, which temporarily reduces selection pressure on recently morphologically changed individuals, thus enabling evolution some time to ‘readapt’ to the new morphology with subsequent control policy mutations. We show the potential for this method to avoid local optima and converge to similar highly fit morphologies across widely varying initial conditions, while sustaining fitness improvements further into optimization. While this technique is admittedly only the first of many steps that must be taken to achieve scalable optimization of embodied machines, we hope that theoretical insight into the cause of evolutionary stagnation in current methods will help to enable the automation of robot design and behavioural training—while simultaneously providing a test bed to investigate the theory of embodied cognition.

scholarly journals Design- and Craft thinking analysed as Embodied Cognition

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Camilla Groth
Keyword(s):  
Embodied Cognition ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Design Thinking ◽  
The Body ◽  
Sense Making ◽  
Tactile Sense ◽  
Intellectual Activity ◽  
Study Report ◽  
Self Study ◽  
Design Students

Through the concept of design thinking the act of designing is presented as an intellectual activity, and the act of planning the design is elevated over the making process. However, the importance of materiality and the embodied sense-making that occurs in this context should not be forgotten. In this study, embodied cognition in design and craft practices was investigated through three case studies. The study takes on an enhanced tactile perspective as a methodological platform; thus, the cases involve 1) deafblind makers in ceramics, 2) a practice-led self-study report on tactile experiences while working with clay and 3) a study on design students’ use of their tactile sense during material exploration. The results show that the act of thinking design involves the body as a knowledge provider.

scholarly journals The Effects of Hyperbaric Exposure on Immediate and Delayed Changes in Core Temperature and Its Circadian Fluctuations

2017 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 19-25
Author(s):  
Sławomir Kujawski ◽  
Joanna Słomko ◽  
Monika Zawadka-Kunikowska ◽  
Mariusz Kozakiewicz ◽  
Jacek J. Klawe ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Body Temperature ◽  
Core Temperature ◽  
Core Body Temperature ◽  
The Body ◽  
Physiological Adaptation ◽  
Deep Body Temperature ◽  
Delayed Effects ◽  
Hyperbaric Exposure ◽  
Core Body ◽  
Deep Body

Abstract Changes observed in the core body temperature of divers are the result of a multifaceted response from the body to the change of the external environment. In response to repeated activities, there may be a chronic, physiological adaptation of the body’s response system. This is observed in the physiology of experienced divers while diving. The purpose of this study is to determine the immediate and delayed effects of hyperbaric exposure on core temperature, as well as its circadian changes in a group of three experienced divers. During compression at 30 and 60 meters, deep body temperature values tended to increase. Subsequently, deep body temperature values showed a tendency to decrease during decompression. All differences in core temperature values obtained by the group of divers at individual time points in this study were not statistically significant.

scholarly journals Ceramics (As Containers)

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl Knappett ◽  
Lambros Malafouris ◽  
Peter Tomkins
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Studies ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Modern Human ◽  
The Body ◽  
Plastic Medium ◽  
Archaeological Data ◽  
Human Thought ◽  
Human Material

This article focuses on the importance of ceramics in material cultural studies. It proceeds to say that ceramics are considered a key feature of human material culture because of what they are taken to represent in economic, technological, and evolutionary terms. The innovation of taking the plastic medium of clay and marrying it with pyrotechnology to create irreversibly a resilient object — usually in the form of a container, has frequently been assumed to mark a revolutionary stage in the development of modern human thought and practice, forming with agriculture and sedentism a trinity of epoch-changing innovations. This article talks about the idea of the body as being used as a container. It says that ‘Containment’ may well be the ‘function’ offering archaeology one of the most important sources of archaeological data and windows into society, and culture; but very little is known about the cognitive, experiential, and evolutionary grounding of the concepts embodied in each and every container.

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