Ecological psychology and enactivism both hold that much of cognition can be explained without invoking internal representations, focusing instead on the dynamic coupling between an agent and the world. Yet the brain clearly plays a role. This paper explores the concept of resonance as a non-representational alternative to the brain's traditional role as a representational organ. It reviews two historical approaches to resonance—representational and non-representational, dynamic—and applies them to a case study of standard tonal jazz performance. The authors propose that a non-representational resonance account, consistent with both ecological psychology and enactivism, offers a viable explanation for jazz performance and suggest future research on the brain as a resonant organ.
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.