A History of Embodied Cognition

What is Embodied Cognition?

- Reference: [Phil, 1] ‘Embodied Cognition’ Approach and Interdisciplinary Convergence

1. Cognitive Science in the 20th Century

“Continuing the philosophical inquiry into the mind”

1.1 Before the Birth of Cognitive Science

Following the scientific revolution in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries, various fields of science gradually branched out from philosophy. In the 19th century, some scholars began exploring the possibility of investigating the mind through objective, experimental, and empirical scientific methods rather than merely intuitive and logical analysis.

• 1870s - Wilhelm Wundt launched psychology as an independent empirical science, known as ‘experimental physiological psychology.’ → For about 30 years, psychology focused on analyzing consciousness as subjective experience. → Emphasized systematizing methods for analyzing subjective reports of individual consciousness. → Refined and systematized the traditional philosophical method of “introspective introspection” as a scientific approach to psychology. ; Structuralism + Introspective Methodology
• Early 20th century - John B. Watson criticized structuralism and introduced the framework of empiricist behaviorist psychology. → Criticized structuralism for straying from the positivist framework of objective science. → Strongly influenced by the logical positivism of philosophy, he sought to deal only with what can be objectively observed. → Rejected mental concepts, focusing solely on behavior. → Aimed to describe animal and human behavior through conditioning processes. → B. F. Skinner attempted to extend this explanation to human language and thought. ; Behaviorism + Conditioning Methodology (~1950)
• Late 1950s - The Cognitive Revolution (a.k.a. the Scientific Revolution of the 20th Century) → Criticized behaviorism for excluding the concept of the mind from psychology. → Introduced a new paradigm for understanding humans, animals, computers, and human cultural systems. ; Classical Cognitivism + Information Processing Approach ← The birth of “Cognitive Science”

  

1.2 Cognitivism: Characteristics and Significance in Cognitive Science

• Cognitivism Paradigm: ‘Mind’ $\sim$ ‘Computer’ $\sim$ ‘Information Processing System (IPS)’ ⇒ How do various forms of information processing occur in the minds of humans and animals, as well as in computers, and how do such processes enable and manifest intelligence? → “Since cognition arises from the workings of the mind, cognitive science becomes the science of the mind.”
  1. Mind, 2) Brain, 3) Computer, 4) Artifact Key Characteristics
  2. ‘Mind’ $\sim$ ‘Computer’ $\sim$ ‘Information Processing System (IPS)’
  3. The process of the mind is viewed through the lens of computationalism, which sees cognition as information processing and transformation.
  4. The content of the mind is structured as representations of intentional objects, a view known as representationalism.
  5. The mind is grounded in the neural states of the brain, emphasizing the neuroscientific basis (yet with a separation of hardware and software).
  6. The study of the mind necessitates a convergent approach, drawing on multiple disciplines.

1.3 Cognitive Science and Interdisciplinary Connections

→ Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Psychology, Philosophy, Linguistics, Cognitive Neuroscience

2 The Evolution of Cognitive Science

Since the mid-1980s, there has been a conceptual reorganization of how we understand the mind.

2.1 Lee Jungmo’s Classification

• Phase 1; 1950s to early 1980s
  • Moving away from behaviorism’s anti-mentalism, which had removed the mind from psychology.
  • Conceptualized the mind as a Physical Symbol System, modeled on digital computers.
• Phase 2; Since the 1980s
  • Recognized the limitations of classical information processing approaches centered on computer metaphors.
  • Proposed a neural network connectionist approach centered on brain metaphors, presenting a subsymbolic computational system.
• Phase 3; Since the 1990s
  • Rapid advancements in cognitive neuroscience research techniques, such as brain imaging, rediscovered the importance of brain functions.
  • Cognitive science aimed to approach the mind grounded in neuroscience.
• Phase 4; Late 1980s to early 21st century
  • A paradigm shift emphasizing the role of the body and environmental context.
  • Cognition exists in physical and social contexts where the human mind is realized through bodily interactions within its environment.

2.2 Evan Thompson’s Classification

• Phase 1 ← Cognitivism
• Phase 2 ← Connectionism (The shift from computers to the brain is characterized by a ‘downwards pull.’)
• Phase 3 ← Embodied Dynamicism (The shift from the brain to the body and environment is characterized by an ‘outwards pull.’)

2.3 The Ultimate Stance: Embodied Cognition

• Critically developed frameworks challenging Cartesian dualism, classical cognitivism, and reductionist materialism.
• Argued that none of these frameworks adequately explained the nature and properties of the mind, and reducing the mind solely to neural states within the brain was insufficient.
• Advocated for conceptualizing the mind as a phenomenon within an integrated system linking the brain, body, and world.

3 Approaches to Embodied Cognition/Mind

3.1 Embodied Cognition, Extended Mind

• Moving away from the traditional Cartesian ontology/epistemology-based concept of the mind (Mind), towards a view of the mind as an emergent phenomenon realized through adaptive ‘actions’ within its environment, using a concrete body.
• Hypothesis of Extended Mind/Cognition (HEM/HEC: Hypothesis of Extended Mind/Cognition, Andy Clark & David Chalmers, 1998)

→ This approach attempts to transcend the limitations of lower-level approaches like connectionism, which seeks to explain everything at the micro-level, neuro-level, or biological unit, as well as the higher-level, proposition-centered, logical systems of classical cognitivism.

→ Rather than cognitive representations or processes occurring independently within an individual’s mind, this approach explains the mind as an activity realized through actions in a cohesive system where the environment, body, and brain form an integrated unit.

“The mind should be re-conceptualized as a phenomenon of action, not merely as neural states or processes within the brain. It is the integrated functioning of the brain’s neural structures, the body beyond the brain, and the environment, acting together as an inseparable unit.”

→ This approach is part of the post-Cartesian movement, aimed at breaking away from Cartesian dualism. Early influences include the 17th-century philosopher B. Spinoza, and later European phenomenological philosophers like Bergson and Merleau-Ponty, who discussed the possibility of psychological properties existing independently of the brain. They proposed that the body, mind, and environment form a unified system, where each physical action of the body, as it adapts to the world, constitutes the mind.

• Cognitive psychologist M. Wilson: The mind and cognition are rooted in the body.
• Gomila, Calvo: Interactionism and dynamicism are more central than mere embodiment.

3.2 Embodied Mind and Artifacts

→ If the mind is conceptualized as existing in dynamic activities where it extends spatially through the body into the environment, then the history of co-evolution between the human mind and artifacts, and the potential futures, must be considered.

As the boundaries between the human mind and artifacts blur and as human existence becomes increasingly redefined by interactions with artifacts, the philosophical framework of ‘embodied cognition’ could provide a crucial theoretical foundation for the conceptual restructuring of future scholarship and technology.

3.3 Challenges in the Embodied Cognition Approach

1. Scientific Paradigm
   • How can the interactions between humans (bodies) and environments be objectified through empirical scientific inquiry?
   • This approach must provide explanations and descriptions that are better and more systematic than those achieved by traditional cognitivist approaches.
2. Conceptual Issues
   • Must address theoretical criticisms posed by scholars like Adams & Aizawa (2008, 2010).
     1. Equivalence Principle: Can the HEM/HEC truly make the environment an equivalent cognitive system to the brain?
     2. Coupling Argument: Material objects in the environment cannot form a unified system with the brain! ↔ Critics argue that it fails to escape the traditional dualistic categories of material-mental, internal-external.

3.4 Interdisciplinary Convergence in Embodied Cognition

• A conceptual shift demanding a new perspective that integrates body-mind-life into a unified framework.

References

---

Philosophy

• [1] ‘Embodied Cognition’ Approach and Interdisciplinary Convergence
  • Lee Jungmo (2010), ‘Embodied Cognition’ Approach and Interdisciplinary Convergence, Philosophy and Thought.

Robotics

• [1] Robots as Powerful Allies for the Study of Embodied Cognition from the Bottom Up
  • Hoffmann, M. & Pfeifer, R. (2018), Robots as powerful allies for the study of embodied cognition from the bottom up, in A. Newen, L. de Bruin; & S. Gallagher, ed., ‘The Oxford Handbook 4e Cognition’, Oxford University Press, pp. 841-861.
• [2] Embodied Cognitive Robotics and the Learning of Sensorimotor Schemes
  • Lara B, Astorga D, Mendoza-Bock E, Pardo M, Escobar E, Ciria A. Embodied Cognitive Robotics and the learning of sensorimotor schemes. Adaptive Behavior. 2018;26(5):225-238. doi:10.1177/1059712318780679
• [3] From Brain Models to Robotic Embodied Cognition: How Does Biological Plausibility Inform Neuromorphic Systems?