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= the theory that many features of cognition shaped by aspects of an organis's entire body

body plays an inportant role in the porduction of behaviour

body also constrains and stuctures our cognitive capacities

1. upright position
2. visual perception
3. location of eyes

free the hands for reaching, grasping, maipulating and using tools

introduces new compelxities into our brain sturcture

upright posture → visual perception becomes more important ; our visual range is extended and the horizon is widened and distracted

herbivores have their eyes on the side of the head, to notice predators form almost any direction

predators have both eyes looking forwards allowing binocular depth and distance perception to get their prey

*Cognition is not for 'thinking' but for 'doing'*

"perception is nothing that happens to us, or in us. It is soemthing. we do "

larvae of the sea squirt wiggle down to the ocean floor to anchor themselves

to develop their digestive, repoductive and circulatory organs, they need superfluous body material

active and passive kittens recieved the same visual stimulation

the reserchers tested their capacity to make visualspatial discrimination ( e.g. paw replacement, visual cliff avoidance, blinking, visual persuit of a moving object)

active kitten showed normal response, passive kitten failed these tests

movement is neccery fot development of visual perception

cognitive capacieties are directly dependent on the environemnt for their functioning

insects seemed much more capable than his robots despite having small nervous system

there is no need to model the world because the world is alweys there ( the robot can use the world it has its own model )

cognition is constituted by direct interaction between body and enviornment

we manage our environment in ways that support and scaffold our cognitive porcesses

know only as much as you need to know to get the job done ( Clarke 1997)

"in general , evolved creatures will neighter store nor porcess information in costly was when they can use the structure of the environment and their operations upon it as convenient stand in for the information porcessing operations )

the causal roles that define out mental states are not only realized by the brain

Clark and Chalmers

cognition extends beyond 'skull and skin' and includes the body and the environment

Otto has Alzheimers's Disease, and need to consult his notebook. Inga is able to recall the directions form her memory"

**based on the concept that like cases should be treated alike and different cases differently**

the environemnt can literally be part of your mind

but are extra cranial process( a notebook) intended fucntionally similar to intra cranial processes( memory) ?

it's not about functional similarity but about the integration between internal and external processes

Otto's book isn't part of his mind because it is systematically and reciporcally integrated with his biological brain during various episodes of cognition

1. Embodied
2. Embedded
3. Enactive
4. Extended

cognition depends not only on the brain, but is shaped and sturctured by the body

cognition depnds on the environment in which the brainody is situated

cognition depends on the interaction between brainody and enviornment

cognition literally extends into the enviornemnt

counting using your fingers and using verbal language

it is so hot that you fail to do the math

you actively counting and categorizing apples and oranges

your fingers , your language, potentially the objects in the environemnt ar epart of cognitive porcess


**Radical embodied cognition**

cognitive states are not identical with neural states

brain body and environemnt shape and structur cognition

cognition cannot be studied independenttly form its implementation

rain body and environement are more than just realizers

rovide bottom up constrints on functional anaysis

an apple appears larger and more intensly red when the preciever is hungry than when satiated

he mind is not an unobservable entitiy or abstaction, hidden behind public behaviour

against Decartes

we are practiaclly engaged with the world, rather than theoretically reflecting on the world the body implicitly offers us possibilities for action and proevides us with an epcrimental perspective of the world

"Perception as input of the world to mind , action as output form mind to world, cognition as sanwitched in between " ( Hurley 2008)

perceptual input → processing representatioons → bodily behavior

the mindrain as a passive perciever

it is not reducible to brain processes that represnt the world

it depends on our mastery of the somatomotor laws that govern the relation between possible actions and the resulting changes in incoming visual information

specific brand of radical Embodied Cognition

any account of cognition needs to conform to conscious expirince

overcoming dichotomy between conscious expirnce and functional analysis

biological organisms ( incuding human beings ) are self

mind and body are continous ather than opposites

bottom up explanation of cognition

sense making : our understanding of the environemnt is valie laden(opportunities and threats)

it is not just about prediction and explanation but also emotion

actions are intentional , they are directed towards objects in the world

we don't need to internally represent these objects they are simply 'out there'

spatial navigation by means of cognitive maps

(my belief tat my office is located in the Erasmus bulding, my sensory expirince of a fired egg, sight, smell, hear, touch, taste)

a) representations carry information about something other than themselves (x)

b) representation can misinterpret x

c) representations can be decoupled from x

1. Frame problem : which information is relevant in a given situation?
2. Binding problem : how and where is this information integrsted?

creating a system that is capable of acting intelligently in the world (McCarthy and Hayes1969)

requires the ability to percieve and use the relevant informaiton

how:

represent the immense amount of common sense knowledge

in a way that enables insatnenous use

of relevant parts of it

1. represnetations in cognitive science are just placeholdrs for an actual explaantion in therms of neuronal processes
2. can be functionalized do not constitute an inadequet level of analysis
3. only neccerly to mediate the differences between what the organism expects and how environment actually is

representation hungry domains (e.g. imagination , memory, planning, language ) in which the agents thinks about something that is absent, possible or abstract

how can we think about things that are not concretely present in our environment other that by means of an internal (mental) representation?