Jeanna Nikolov-Ramirez

Mei:CogSci Comenius University Bratislava

Supervisor: Igor Farkaš

Grounded Cognition

Oct 6th, 2015

Image Source: http://no4ko4.com/2013/12/08/one-night-with-a-stranger-martin-briley/

Towards embodied cognition. Contrasting symbolic and

embodied cognition.

OUTLINE •  The Text

•  The Author

•  What is Grounded Cognition?

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•  The Key Points •  Open Questions •  Discussion Time

THE TEXT Barsalou L. (2008). Grounded cognition. Annual Reviews of Psychology, 59: 617-45.

https://www.google.at/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#safe=off&q=l%20barsalou http://dai.fmph.uniba.sk/courses/GC/ 3

WHAT IS GROUNDED COGNITION?

•  Standard theories: Knowledge in semantic memory system separate from brain’s modal systems for

•  perception (vision, audition),

•  action (movement, proprioception),

•  introspection (mental states, affect)

•  Grounded Cognition Theory: reject view that amodal symbols represent knowledge in semantic memory

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http://www.fromupnorth.com/photography-inspiration-537/

GROUNDED COGNITION: FOCUS

Body in cognition

Bodily states can cause cognitive states and be effects of them

Simulation in cognition:

Is the reenactment of •  perceptual, •  motor and •  introspective states

acquired during experience with world, body and mind.

Later multimodal representation reactivated to simulate associated qualities

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https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/be/9e/9c/be9e9ca4fb9584845eb864cd778e7547.jpg

SIMULATION MECHANISM Mental imagery constitutes the best known case of these simulation mechanisms

•  Usually deliberate attempts to construct conscious representations in working memory

•  Other forms active automatically and unconsciously outside working memory

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http://www.intropsych.com/ch07_cognition/mental_imagery.html

KOSSLYN, 1980

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mental-imagery/quasi-pictorial.html

SOCIAL INTERACTION Cognitive system evolved to support action in specific situations, including social interactions.

Embodied IS NOT just bodily states

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/ad/4e/30/ad4e3089491ce1b17a04a86f35db7447.jpg

GROUNDED IN MULTIPLE WAYS

•  Simulations

•  Situated actions

•  Bodily states

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/68/ea/a4/68eaa47f29411ecb8b109dedc7ccfad4.jpg

ORIGINS AND IMAGERY

Watson (1913) criticism on imagery as not being sufficiently scientific http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Watson/views.htm

Behavioral and neural evidence for imagery eventually became so overwhelming that imagery is now accepted as a basic cognitive mechanism (Kosslyn et al, 2006)

http://www.biography.com/people/john-b-watson-37049

NEURAL REPRESENTATIONS

Grounded theories focus increasingly on neural representations in the modalities, and less on conscious imagery.

http://www.ucalgary.ca/pip369/mod7/touch/neural2

MISPERCEPTIONS OF GROUNDED COGNITION

•  Completely empiricist (some simulation having genetic basis?)

•  Recording systems that only capture images but unable to interpret them conceptually

•  Only using sensory-motor representations of external world to represent knowledge. Claim: cannot represent abstract concepts not grounded externally

Internal states no less important than external experience.

Knowledge acquired from introspection central to representation of abstract concepts.

Simulations partial recreations of experience that can contain bias and error.

https://ronanwills.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/inside-out-5492d0c4e3912.jpg

THEORIES •  Cognitive Linguistics

(Metaphors)

•  Situated Action (Robotics, Dynamic systems)

•  Cognitive Simulation (PSS, Convergence Zone Architecture, Dual Code Theory, Basic Systems Theory)

•  Social Simulation (Mental states of others, Mirror Circuits)

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https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/ea/b6/50/eab650b9675fc841ba2505b7d16dbe54.jpg

“Nonhumans have roughly the same simulation system as humans but lack linguistic system to control it.”

PSS

http://emotionandembodiment.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/perceptual-symbol-systems.png

CONVERGENZE ZONE ARCHITECTURE

http://willcov.com/bio-consciousness/sidebars/Convergence-Divergence%20Zones_files/image303.jpg

EVIDENCE •  Perceptual inference

(similar stimuli trigger memories, associations between shape and color)

•  Perception-action coordination: Perceived grasp, judging weight

•  Perception of space: Shaped by the body, individual body differences arm length

•  Memory: Retrieval simulates operations performed at encoding

•  Knowledge and processing: switching cost between modalities (property verification task)

•  Lesions

•  Neuroimaging

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BODILY STATES, SITUATED ACTION •  Situation

models

•  Perceptual simulation

•  Motor simulation

•  Affective simulation

•  Physical reasoning

•  Abstract reasoning

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http://bcove.me/jns0ox4o

http://bcove.me/jns0ox4o

SOCIAL COGNITION •  Embodiment

effects (walking like the elderly, religious cognition)

•  Social mirroring (Joint attention and timing)

•  Development: Imitation

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http://www.animhut.com/photography/50-best-vadim-stein-exotic-fashion-photography-inspiration/

THEORETICAL, EMPIRICAL ISSUES

•  Brain contain amodal symbols?

•  Simulation implement classic symbolic operations?

•  Simulation and embodiment causal or epiphenomenal? (TMS over motor areas)

•  Statistical representations?

•  Grounding of language?

•  Single Representation System in Brain?

•  Representation of abstract concepts?

•  Mirror neurons and Social cognition?

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METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES •  Computational,

formal theories

•  Integrating disciplines

•  Integrating levels of explanation

KEY POINTS AND OPEN QUESTIONS •  Modal simulations, bodily states and situated action

underlie cognition.

•  How to ground classic research paradigms (e.g. recognition memory)? Making them compatible?

•  Grounded perspective: Association between perception and action

•  Potential to integrate cognitive, social, and developmental processes. > Robotics and AI?

•  What levels of explanation are necessary?

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PLENUM TIME

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REFERENCES Barsalou L. (2008). Grounded cognition. Annual Reviews of Psychology, 59: 617-45.

Wilson M. (2002) Six views of embodied cognition. Psychonomics Bulletin Review, 9(4), 625-636.

Ziemke T. (2003) What's that thing called embodiment? Proc. of the 25th Annual Conf. of the Cog. Sci. Society, 1134-1139.

Borghi A.M. & Cimatti, F. (2010) Embodied cognition and beyond: Acting and sensing the body. Neuropsychologia 48.

24 THANK YOU!

http://psychsciencenotes.blogspot.co.at/2013/07/grounded-vs-embodied-cognition.html