Lifelong learning of cognitive strategies for physical problem-solving: the effect of embodied experience

Abstract

‘Embodied cognition’ suggests that our experience in our bodies – including our motor experiences – shape our cognitive and perceptual capabilities broadly. Much work has studied how differences in the physical body (either natural or manipulated) can impact peoples’ cognitive and perceptual capacities, but often these judgments relate directly to those body differences. Here we focus instead on how natural embodied experience affects what kinds of abstract physical problem-solving strategies people use in a virtual task. We compare how groups with different embodied experience – children and adults with congenital limb differences versus those born with two hands – perform on this task, and find that while there is no difference in overall accuracy or time to complete the task, the groups use different meta-strategies to come to solutions. Specifically, both children and adults born with limb differences take a longer time to think before acting, and as a result take fewer overall actions to reach solutions to physical reasoning problems. Conversely, the process of development affects the particular actions children use as they age regardless of how many hands they were born with, as well as their persistence with their current strategy. Taken together, our findings suggest that differences in embodied experience drive the acquisition of different meta-strategies for balancing acting with thinking, deciding what kinds of actions to try, and deciding how persistent to be with a current action plan.

Physical Cognition in Altered Gravity: Link Between Sensorimotor and Cognitive Adaptability

“…Our findings support the framework of embodied cognition, which argues that cognitive processes are fundamentally intertwined with the body's interactions with the physical environment (Neupärtl et al, 2021). For example, the way humans physically interact with objects affects their understanding of objects' properties and shapes their exploration, planning, and problem-solving strategies (Allen et al, 2023;Gibbs, 2005;Needham, 2009;Sommerville et al, 2005;Wiesen et al, 2016;Wilson, 2002). Additionally, gestures during conversations do more than accompany speech-they actively shape humans' thoughts and the way they communicate (Hostetter & Alibali, 2008).…”

“…The second stage of the experiment was conducted online after the VR session in the lab. We sent all participants a link to an online physical reasoning task (Virtual Tool Use; Figure 1C; https://www.bbk.ac.uk/psychology/e/xp/269/258/1/; Allen et al, 2023;Allen et al, 2020), which they completed in their homes. After accessing the experiment link, participants were provided with information about the experiment, an online consent form and instructions on playing the game.…”

Temporal and state abstractions for efficient learning, transfer, and composition in humans.

“…Second, the low-level action space in real life conditions is also more complex. A good example is our flexible use of tools (Allen et al, 2019). We can conceptualize using various tools as taking actions.…”

The Effects of Rewards on Trial-and-Error Learning in School-Aged Children

“…In each game, children needed to select one of three objects ('tools') and to place it on the screen to get a ball into a target area. The tool placement triggers physical cascades, which approximate the physics of the real world (Allen et al, 2021;Allen et al, 2020). Children could attempt each game up to 7 times without a time limit.…”