- Embodied Embedded Cognition
Embodied Embedded Cognition (EEC) is a philosophical theoretical position in
cognitive science , closely related tosituated cognition ,embodied cognition ,embodied cognitive science anddynamical systems theory . The theory states that intelligentbehaviour emerges out of the interplay betweenbrain , body and world. The world is not just the 'play-ground' on which the brain is acting. Rather, brain, body and world are equally important factors in the explanation of how particular intelligent behaviours come about in practice.Embodiment and Embeddedness
EEC is divided into two aspects:
embodiment and embeddedness (or situatedness)."
Embodiment " refers to the idea that the bodies' internal milieu (a.o.homeostatic and hormonal states) heavily influences the higher 'cognitive' processes in the brain, presumably via theemotion al system (see e.g. Antonio Damasio's theory of somatic markers). To put it simply: the state of your body is a direct factor of importance on the kinds ofcognitive process es that may arise in the higher parts of your brain."Embeddedness" refers to the idea that physical interaction between the body and the world strongly constrain the possible behaviours of the organism, which in turn influences (indeed, partly constitutes) the cognitive processes that emerge out of the interaction between organism and world.
The theory is an explicit reaction to the currently dominant cognitivist paradigm, which states that cognitive systems are essentially computational-representational systems (like computer
software ), processing input and generating output (behaviour) on the basis of internal information processing. In cognitivism, the causal root of behaviour lies in the 'virtual' processes governed by the software that runs on our brains. The brain is purely thehardware on which the software is implemented. The body (sensors and actors) are purely input-output devices that are in service of the brain. The world is merely the play-ground (the object) in which the cognitive agent acts.In contrast, EEC holds that the actual physical processes in body and in body-world interaction partly constitute whatever it is that we call 'the cognitive system' as a whole. Body, world and brain form a system. Together these system-parts 'cause' intelligent behaviour to arise as a system property. Dynamical Systems Theory is a way of modeling behaviour that teams up quite naturally with the theoretical concepts of EEC.
Current discussions include:
* Is EEC really a (positive) theory of itself, or merely a bunch of complaints about what is wrong about (a too extreme version of) cognitivism?
* Is EEC too 'descriptive', instead of really explaining anything about cognition?
* How can EEC explainlinguistic processes and processes of explicit consciousreasoning ?
* What would be the most informative empirical hypotheses, starting from an EEC perspective?
* Can we use traditional methods (stimulus-response paradigms) ofexperimental psychology to test EEC hypotheses?Theorists
Theorists that inspired the EEC programme (but might not necessarily adhere to the above position) include:
*
Randall Beer
*Valentino Braitenberg
*Rodney Brooks
*William Clancey
*Andy Clark
*Gerald Edelman
*Shaun Gallagher
*Pim Haselager
*Fred Keijzer
*Alva Noe
*Mark Rowlands
*Evan Thompson
*Francisco Varela
*Tom Ziemke ee also
*
Autopoesis
*Neurophenomenology
*Situated cognition External links
* [http://www.nici.kun.nl/~haselag/links/eeclinks.html Some EEC links]
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