Embodied Cognitive Science Unit (Tom Froese)
In this unit we pursue the implications of embodied cognitive science from the mind’s most basic expressions in adaptive behavior to its most complex manifestations in abstract thinking. Our interdisciplinary research is framed by a general interest in better understanding the major transitions from minimal cognition to human cognition, and our guiding insight is that changes in environmental mediation, especially sociocultural and technological mediation, have the potential to transform and potentiate the mind.
We employ a diversity of methods that are drawn from the intersection of computer science and complex systems theory: agent-based modeling, artificial neural networks, evolutionary robotics, time series analysis, virtual reality, sensory substitution interfaces, and human-computer interaction.
Listen to the October 2019 OIST Podcast “Embodied cognitive science with Professor Tom Froese”
What is the mind? Traditionally, cognitive science has approached this question in terms of the hypothesis of a physical symbol system: the mind/brain is a computer, and cognition is computation. More recent approaches to cognitive science have questioned the adequacy of this hypothesis and have begun to advance alternative frameworks that substantially broaden the basis of the mind, leading to the rise of embodied, embedded, extended, and enactive (4E) cognition. These approaches develop in different ways a shared core commitment to the claim that agent-environment interaction is a foundational part of cognition, rather than just a secondary product of cognition. Together these approaches are broadly known as embodied cognitive science.
Latest Posts
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New Paper: Do Digital Hugs Work? (2023-08-09)
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we were led to social isolation, restricting some from physical touch and social gatherings. In this article, Dr. Mark James goes into details on how some may find care and connection through digitally mediated interactions, and the experience of 'digital hugs'.
New Preprint: The Energetics of Locomotion (2023-07-11)
Dr. Andrés Mejía presents a biomechanical framework for studying human and animal movement across the landscape in his latest preprint on bioRxiv. He developed an associated statistical library for R — lbmech — to make it easy for behavioral scientists to perform empirically-grounded least-cost path analyses much faster and more efficiently than current methods.
New Preprint: Reviewing Neurophenomenology (2023-07-05)
Dr. Tom Froese and ECSU Research Intern alumnus Jon Sykes takek a critical look at neurophenomenology’s revolutionary ambitions in their recent preprint on PsyArXiv (in French). They conclude that despite progress, its key claim that lived experience matters to brain activity still needs more support.