Embodied Cognition

Summary

Embodied cognition offers an alternative to cognitivism, which treats perception as computational operations on static representations. Cognitivism views the mind as a passive receptor processing inputs like shading into outputs like shape. Gibson's theory instead holds that perception is direct detection of information in the optic array that specifies opportunities for action, allowing active observers to know their world relative to their needs. Embodied cognition researchers propose a new framework for studying the mind, emphasizing the role of the body and environment.

Study at a glance

Abstract

The article explains the history, core concepts, methodological practices, and future prospects of embodied cognition. Cognitivism treats cognition, including perception, as a constructive process in which computational operations transform a static representation into a goal state. Cognition begins with an input representation so that the psychological subject can be conceived as a passive receptor of information. The cognitivist's primary concern is the discovery of algorithms by which inputs such as those representing shading are transformed into outputs such as those representing shape. The experimental methods need to provide an environment that isolates the stimuli that will be relevant to an investigation of the mental process of interest. Gibson's theory of perception explains that information in the optic array sufficed to specify opportunities for action, thus providing observers with an ability to perceive. Gibson explains that perception is the detection of information that, with no further embellishment, suffices to specify features of an observer's world. The active observer could, by collecting and sampling the wealth of information contained within the optic array, know its world in terms relative to its needs. Embodied cognition researchers conceive of themselves as offering a new framework for studying the mind.