Place and Environment in the Ongoing Evolution of Cognitive Neuroscience.

Cognitive science is increasingly influenced by embodied, embedded, extended, and enactive perspectives alongside traditional computational assumptions. Neuroscience has advanced understanding of brain function within classical frameworks, but newer alternative perspectives can enrich interpretations of many findings. These frameworks highlight how an animal's cognitive requirements are shaped by its environment, how biology and ecology coevolve to shape cognition, and how cognition extends beyond the brain. The embodied cognition paradigm reveals the central role of 'place' in the cognitive landscape, offering insights for cognitive scientists and philosophers. The concept of place applies to cognitive function, species comparisons, ecologically relevant experimental designs, and approaches to the 'hard problem' of consciousness.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Cognitive science today increasingly is coming under the influence of embodied, embedded, extended, and enactive perspectives, superimposed on the more traditional cybernetic, computational assumptions of classical cognitive research. Neuroscience has contributed to a greatly enhanced understanding of brain function within the constraints of the traditional cognitive science approach, but interpretations of many of its findings can be enriched by the newer alternative perspectives. Here, we note in particular how these frameworks highlight the cognitive requirements of an animal situated within its particular environment, how the coevolution of an organism's biology and ecology shape its cognitive characteristics, and how the cognitive realm extends beyond the brain of the perceiving animal. We argue that these insights of the embodied cognition paradigm reveal the central role that "place" plays in the cognitive landscape and that cognitive scientists and philosophers alike can gain from paying heed to the importance of a concept of place. We conclude with a discussion of how this concept can be applied with respect to cognitive function, species comparisons, ecologically relevant experimental designs, and how the "hard problem" of consciousness might be approached, among its other implications.