Embodied/Disembodied Cognition

What’s the Historical Context for Embodied/Disembodied Cognition?

Developed partly as a critique of classical computational and disembodied approaches to cognition, where cognition is primarily internal information-processing and occurs inside

What does the embodied cognition argue against the disembodied?

Cognitive processes are fundamentally shaped by the body's physical structure, sensorimotor capacities, actions, and ongoing interactions with the environment.

What does Shakey the Robot illustrate?

classical, relatively disembodied approach—the body primarily executes plans produced by internal computation or representations

How does Herbert contrast Shakey?

Herbert uses multiple relatively independent sensorimotor systems to locate and collect objects without requiring a detailed central representation of the environment, example of subsumption architecture

Why is the disembodied cognition approach important?

Expands the unit of explanation from the brain alone to the coupled brain-body-environment system

What’d the contrast between Shakey and Herbert help suggest?

Suggested that intelligent behaviour can sometimes emerge through ongoing perception-action loops rather than extensive internal computation

What is the debate against disembodied approaches?

Better suited to explaining real-time sensorimotor behaviour than offline cognition, such as abstract reasoning or planning

What’s the Historical Context of Passive Dynamic Walker (PDW)?

Traditional and computational approaches to robotics assumed successful movement required extensive internal control, it was meant to challenge this assumption

What is a Passive Dynamic Walker (PDW)?

A mechanical system that can walk down a slight slope without motors, sensors, or a central computational controlled by exploiting its bodily gravity, momentum, environmental conditions

What is meant by cognition/control can “leak” into the body?

Some of the work that we might assume must be performed by a brain or central controlled could instead be performed by joints, gravity, body shape, interaction with environment

What does Honda’s ASIMO use?

Extensive centralized computational control to coordinate dancing and walking

How does PDW’s contrast with ASIMO help demonstrate?

That stable walking can emerge from appropriately structure bodily dynamics with very little or no centralized computation

These PDW/PUPPY are not controlled in every aspect, instead?

Simple control systems can “nudge” the body’s natural dynamics

What does the PDW ultimately challenge?

The assumption that intelligent or adaptive behaviour requires detailed internal computation or representation

What is the critique of PDW and walking?

Seen as a relatively constrained sensorimotor task, argued that morphological computation cannot explain complicated cognition such as language and reasoning

What’s the Historical Context of Optical Acceleration Cancellation (OAC)?

Traditional computational approaches may explain the way to catch a ball requiring complex internal computation, internal representation of trajectory, calculate and then plan movement

What is Optical Acceleration Cancellation (OAC)?

Theory explaining how humans/animals/robots, intercept moving/flying objects without calculating complex, deliberate physics calculations in advance

Why is OAC important?

Demonstrates action-perception coupling where cognition unfolds continuously through a sensorimotor loop based on change

How does a baseball player work as an example for OAC?

The player does not calculate the ball’s landing position beforehand but can continuously adjust movement according to optical information

How does a baseball player work as an example for OAC?

Dogs may use similar perceptual methods to intercept moving objects, suggesting that successful behaviour can emerge from action-perception coupling without complex explicit calculation

How does Tetris affect the action of the individual?

Rotation on-screen simplifies the cognitive task and performed partly to gain information or reduce internal cognitive effort

What does OAC challenge?

Challenges computational approaches by showing that successful behaviour may emerge through continuous sensorimotor interaction without detailed internal representations

What’s a critique on OAC?

Argued that the theory does not establish internal representations are entirely unnecessary, the person must still process perceptual information and coordinate action—some could remain involved

What is Cognitive Offloading?

Process of using bodily actions or features of the external environment to reduce the amount of internal cognitive processing needed to complete a task

How is Tetris an example of Cognitive Offloading?

A player could mentally rotate a piece to determine whether it fits, but physically rotating it on-screen reduces the need for mental visualization

In Tetris, the action is also not merely the output of thinking, what does it contribute to?

The thinking process itself, just like writing something down so you don’t have to remember it

Why does Cognitive Offloading matter for embodied cognition?

Challenges the classical idea that cognition happens entirely inside the brain before action occurs, action and environment can actively participate in problem-solving

What’s one way cognitive offloading can occur?

Epistemic action—actions performed to gain information or simplify cognition

What’s brain-body feedback loop?

The continuous, reciprocal interaction through which the brain influences the body and changes in the body, in turn, influence ongoing brain activity and cognition

How does brain-body feedback loop apply to catching a baseball where perceptual information guides bodily movement?

Moving changes the player’s position relative to the ball, producing new perceptual information, further guiding movement

What’s the reciprocal causation in brain-body feedback loop?

The brain isn’t simply issuing commands to a passive body, bodily movement and sensory feedback continually alter the cognitive process