Embodied Cognition

 

Michael J. Spivey

Cognitive and Information Sciences

University of California, Merced

 

This course will cover the theoretical development of the framework of embodied cognition, its supporting experimental evidence, its debate with classical cognitive science, and its computational models that combine sensorimotor processes with cognitive processes. The course will integrate research from neuroscience, cognitive psychology, linguistics, computer science, and philosophy of mind, to provide an interdisciplinary perspective on exactly what the contribution is that embodied cognition is making to the field of cognitive science.

 

 

Day 1: Theory of Embodied Cognition  [download presentation]

Required readings:

Barsalou, L. W., Breazeal, C. & Smith, L. B. (2007). Cognition as coordinated non-cognition. Cognitive Processing, 8, 79-91.

Spivey, M. J. (2006) Chapter 9 (Temporal Dynamics in Action, pp. 237-256) of The Continuity of Mind. NY, NY: Oxford University Press. [Access from NBU network]

 

Additional readings:

Wilson, M. & Knoblich, G. (2005). The Case for Motor Involvement in Perceiving Conspecifics. Psychological Bulletin 131, 460-473.

Gallese, V. & Lakoff, G. (2005). The brain’s concepts: the role of the sensory-motor system in conceptual knowledge. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 21, 455-479.

 

 

Day 2: Evidence of Cognition as Coextensive with Sensorimotor Processes  [download presentation]

Required readings:

Zwaan & Kaschak (2009). Language in the brain, body, and world. In P. Robbins and M. Aydede (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Situated Cognition.  (pp. 368-381). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Tucker, M. & Ellis, R. (2004). Action priming by briefly presented objects. Acta Psychologica 116, 185–203.

 

Additional readings:

Bosbach, S., Cole, J., Prinz, W., & Knoblich, G. (2005).  Inferring another’s expectation from action: The role of peripheral sensation.  Nature Neuroscience, 8, 1295-1297. 

Glenberg, A., & Kaschak, M. (2002). Grounding language in action.Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 558-565.

Richardson, D., Spivey, M., Barsalou, L., & McRae, K. (2003). Spatial representations activated during real-time comprehension of verbs.Cognitive Science, 27, 767-780.

 

 

 

Day 3: In Defense of Classical Cognitive Science  [download presentation]

Required readings:

Mahon, B. Z. & Caramazza, A. (2009). A critical look at the embodied cognition hypothesis and a new proposal for grounding conceptual content. Journal of Physiology – Paris, 102, 59-70.

Markman, A.B., & Brendl, C.M. (2005).Constraining theories of embodied cognition. Psychological Science, 16(1), 6-10.

 

Additional readings:

Dietrich, E., & Markman, A.B. (2003).Discrete thoughts: Why cognition must use discrete representations. Mind and Language, 18, 95-119.

Bosbach, S.,  Knoblich, G., Reed, C., Cole, J. & Prinz, W. (2006). Body inversion effect without body sense: Insights from deafferentation. Neuropsychologia, 44, 2950-2958.

Zwaan, R.A. (in press). Mental simulation in language comprehension and social cognition. European Journal of Social Psychology.

 

 

Day 4: Evidence of Motor Feedback into Cognition   [download presentation]

Required readings:

Pulveruller, Hauk, O., Nikulin, V., Ilmoniemi, R. (2005). Functional links between motor and language systems. European Journal of Neuroscience. 21, 793-797.

Meteyard, L., Zokaei, N., Bahrami, B. & Vigliocco, G. (2008) Visual motion interferes with lexical decision on motion words. Current Biology 18, R732-R733.

 

Additional readings:

Nazir, T., Boulenger, V., Roy, A., Silber, B., Jeannerod, M., Paulignan, Y.  (2008). Language-induced motor perturbations during the execution of a reaching movement.  Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 61, 933-943.

Grezes, J., Tucker, M., Armony, J., Ellis, R., & Passingham, R. (2003). Objects automatically potentiate action: an fMRI study of implicit processing. European Journal of Neuroscience, 17, 2735-2740.

Vankov, I. (2009). Mind the gap: The cost of looking at nothing, or the performance implications of memory-induced attention shifts.  Proceedings of the 31st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society.

 

Day 5: Models of Embodied Cognition  [download presentation]

Required readings:

Howell, S. R., Jankowicz, D., & Becker, S. (2005). A model of grounded language acquisition: Sensorimotor features improve lexical and grammatical learning, Journal of Memory and Language, 53, 258-276.

Yu, C., Ballard, D. H., and Aslin, R. N. (2005). The role of embodied intention in early lexical acquisition. Cognitive Science, 29, 961-1005.

 

Additional readings:

Roy, D. (2005). Grounding words in perception and action: Computational insights. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9, 389-96.

Scheutz, M., Eberhard, K., and Andronache, V. (2004). A parallel distributed realtime robotic model for human reference resolution with visual constraints". Connection Science, 16, 145-167.

 

Seminars

During the seminars, experimental and simulation work will be planned and discussed.

 

Assessment

At the end of the week, students will be assessed on the basis of their written paper (approx. 5 pages double-spaced).

 

Michael J. Spivey

Spivey received his PhD in Brain and Cognitive Sciences from the University of Rochester in 1996, and was then a professor of psychology at Cornell University for 12 years, and a director of their Cognitive Science Program. He is now Professor of Cognitive Science at University of California, Merced, chair of their Social and Cognitive Sciences graduate program, and chair of their Cognitive and Information Sciences faculty unit. He is on the governing board of the Cognitive Science Society, and associate editor of Language and Cognitive Processes.  Spivey’s research has been supported by the NSF, the NIH, the Sloan Foundation, Cornell’s Appel Fellowship, and U. of Arizona’s Consciousness Studies Program.  His work explores the continuous transitions that the mind traverses as it changes from one apparent state to the next (whether those states are phonemes, words, visual objects, or categories). In addition to his recent book, The Continuity of Mind (2007, Oxford U. Press), Spivey has published over 100 articles, chapters, and peer-reviewed conference papers demonstrating a fluid interaction between various aspects of language processing and visual perception.