The dynamics of embodiment: A field theory of infant perseverative reaching

Abstract

The overall goal of this target article is to demonstrate a mechanism for an embodied cognition. The particular vehicle is a much-studied, but still widely debated phenomenon seen in 7–12 month-old-infants. In Piaget's classic “A-not-B error,” infants who have successfully uncovered a toy at location “A” continue to reach to that location even after they watch the toy hidden in a nearby location “B.” Here, we question the traditional explanations of the error as an indicator of infants' concepts of objects or other static mental structures. Instead, we demonstrate that the A-not-B error and its previously puzzling contextual variations can be understood by the coupled dynamics of the ordinary processes of goal-directed actions: looking, planning, reaching, and remembering. We offer a formal dynamic theory and model based on cognitive embodiment that both simulates the known A-not-B effects and offers novel predictions that match new experimental results. The demonstration supports an embodied view by casting the mental events involved in perception, planning, deciding, and remembering in the same analogic dynamic language as that used to describe bodily movement, so that they may be continuously meshed. We maintain that this mesh is a pre-eminently cognitive act of “knowing” not only in infancy but also in everyday activities throughout the life span.

Generalizing the dynamic field theory of spatial cognition across real and developmental time scales

“…This model accounts for infants' performance in a manner comparable to the account proposed by Thelen et al (2001) and the simulations reported here. For instance, developmental change in the PDP model is achieved through strengthening connections within the hidden layer, which effectively produces a more robust "active" memory for the current trial.…”

“…The dynamic field framework was originally developed to capture the dynamics of neural activation in visual cortex (Amari, 1977). More recently, this framework has been extended to account for the processes that underlie saccadic eye movements (Kopecz & Schöner, 1995;Wilimzig, Schneider & Schöner, 2006), motor planning (Erlhagen & Schöner, 2002;Schutte & Spencer, 2007b), infants' performance in Piaget's Anot-B task (Thelen, Schöner, Scheier & Smith, 2001), the dynamics of neural activation in motor and premotor cortex (Bastian, Riehle, Erlhagen & Schöner, 1998;Bastian, Schöner & Riehle, 2003), and the behavior of autonomous robots (Bicho, Mallet & Schöner, 2000;Iossifidis & Schöner, 2006;Steinhage & Schöner, 1998).…”

A philosophical defense of the idea that we can hold each other in personhood: intercorporeal personhood in dementia care

“…Furthermore, a narrow focus on cognition combined with a dismissal of the role of embodiment for this very cognition is at odds with recent research in cognitive neuroscience, developmental psychology and phenomenological strands of philosophy (see Gallagher, 2005;Thelen, 2001;Clarke, 1997;Damasio, 1994;Varela, Thompson and Rosch, 1991). Despite the differences between these strands of research, they all examine how cognition is necessarily embodied: the individual's unique sensory-motor capabilities enable her or him to interact with others, and cognition "arises from bodily interactions with the world" and "depends on the kinds of experiences that come from having a body with particular perceptual and motor capacities that are inseparably linked and that together form the matrix within which reasoning, memory, emotion, language and all other aspects of mental life are meshed" (Thelen et al, 2001, 1).…”

A neural mechanism for coordinate transformation predicts pre-saccadic remapping

“…The DNF approach has successfully been employed in models of motor planning for both eye movements (Kopecz and Schöner 1995;Trappenberg et al 2001) and reach movements (Erlhagen and Schöner 2002;Cisek 2006). On a more abstract level, the approach is used in behavioral models of spatial cognition, visual working memory, and development (Thelen et al 2001;Simmering et al 2008;Johnson et al 2008). …”