Frontiers in psychology
January 1, 2022
Christian Kronsted, Sean Kugele, Zachariah A Neemeh et al.
7 citations
Smooth coping—skillful, habituated action like walking, driving, or cooking—is characterized by rapidity and reduced cognitive load. The authors develop a conceptual model of smooth coping within the LIDA cognitive architecture, which implements global workspace theory. They argue that smooth coping consists of sequences of automatized actions intermittently interspersed with consciously mediated action selection, supplemented by never-conscious dorsal stream processes for online adjustments. To implement this, they introduce an Automatized Action Selection sub-module. The model integrates embodied intelligence from enactivism with representations and conscious control mechanisms, addressing how smooth coping can be modeled in autonomous agents and implemented in artificial agents.
Frontiers in psychology
January 1, 2026
Christian Kronsted, Matthew Henley, Miriam Giguere
The Kolb Learning Cycle describes experiential learning through four phases: experimentation, concretization, observation, and conceptualization. This article extends the model by integrating 4E cognition (embodied, enactive, embedded, extended), group role theory, ecological psychology, and participatory sense-making. The authors argue that as individuals cycle through group roles—leader, follower, naysayer, observer—they shift into different Kolb phases, which changes the group's emergent dynamics. Social interaction thus drives the learning cycle. Because individual behavior emerges from group processes, reductive explanations of group learning as the sum of individual contributions are inadequate; instead, the group itself is considered a cognitive system that drives learning.
Journal of Social Ontology
May 6, 2025
Christian Kronsted
Collective effervescence, the intense shared affect of being swept away and becoming one with a crowd, is linked to psychological and physical benefits. Although 4E cognition (enactive, embodied, embedded, extended) treats cognition as inherently social and affective, no 4E account of collective effervescence exists. Integrating empirical research, the author argues that collective effervescence occurs whenever a human crowd exhibits high degrees of self-organizing bodily activity under proper boundary conditions. The experience is the felt aspect of undergoing such self-organization. A 4E dynamic-systems approach demystifies the phenomenon and opens it for use in public policy and therapy.