(some) Methods

in Embodied Cognitive Science

27 October 2022

Introduction to Embodied Cognitive Science

There is nothing so theoretical as a good method — Greenwald 2012

There is nothing so practical as a good theory — Lewin 1951

Driving questions | types of methods

The body and its dynamics

 

Interaction and its dynamics

 

The environment

are constitutive of cognition

 

are constitutive of cognition

 

is constitutive of cognition

Break or change (and measure) a small part

Simulate operations

Isolate minimal operation

Interpret parts, wholes, and relations

Break or change (and measure) a small part

Kirsh, D. (2011). How marking in dance constitutes thinking with the body.

Behavioural measures

Regular cognitive science targeting the body

Break or change (and measure) a small part

Rochat, P., Neisser, U., & Marian, V. (1998). Are young infants sensitive to interpersonal contingency?

Murray, L., & Trevarthen, C. (1985). Emotional regulations of interactions between two-month-olds and their mothers.

Behavioural measures

Regular cognitive science targeting the body

Ablation or modification of interactions

Break or change (and measure) a small part

Behavioural measures

Regular cognitive science targeting the body

Ablation or modification of interactions

Sensory substitution

O’Regan, J. K., & Noë, A. (2001). A sensorimotor account of vision and visual consciousness.

Froese, T., & Ortiz-Garin, G. U. (2020). Where Is the Action in Perception? An Exploratory Study With a Haptic Sensory Substitution Device.

Break or change (and measure) a small part

Behavioural measures

Regular cognitive science targeting the body

Ablation or modification of interactions

Sensory substitution

Instrumentation-based measures

2-person neuroscience

Babiloni, F., & Astolfi, L. (2014). Social neuroscience and hyperscanning techniques: Past, present and future.

Break or change (and measure) a small part

Behavioural measures

Regular cognitive science targeting the body

Ablation or modification of interactions

Sensory substitution

Instrumentation-based measures

2-person neuroscience

Break or change (and measure) a small part

Synchronised signals

Differing frequency signals

Synchronized and desynchronized signals

2017

Simulate operations

A case may be made for mathematization of scientific domains as a course toward resolving theoretical disputes, clarifying conceptual confusions, and making potential decisions concerning the greater validity of one verbalized scientific description over another. — Dale and Spivey 2005

Theory or controversy as targets

Simulate autopoiesis

Beer, R. D. (2014). The Cognitive Domain of a Glider in the Game of Life.

Simulate operations

Theory or controversy as targets

Dynamical Systems Theory vs. Information Theory

Simulate autopoiesis

Beer, R. D., & Williams, P. L. (2015). Information Processing and Dynamics in Minimally Cognitive Agents.

Simulate operations

Theory or controversy as targets

Dynamical Systems Theory vs. Information Theory

Simulate autopoiesis

System design

Minimal organisms

Braitenberg, V. (1986). Vehicles: Experiments in synthetic psychology.

Simulate operations

Theory or controversy as targets

Dynamical Systems Theory vs. Information Theory

Simulate autopoiesis

System design

Minimal organisms

Neuro-biomechanical interactions vs. neural control

Beer, R. D. (2009). Beyond Control: The Dynamics of Brain-Body-Environment Interaction in Motor Systems.

Simulate operations

Theory or controversy as targets

Dynamical Systems Theory vs. Information Theory

Simulate autopoiesis

System design

Minimal organisms

Neuro-biomechanical interactions vs. neural control

Robotics

Scruffy body-based robotics

Dynamic AI, body computation

Brooks, R. A. (1990). Elephants don’t play chess.

Nakajima, K., Hauser, H., Li, T., & Pfeifer, R. (2018). Exploiting the Dynamics of Soft Materials for Machine Learning.

Dotov, D., & Froese, T. (2020). Dynamic Interactive Artificial Intelligence: Sketches for a Future AI Based on Human-Machine Interaction.

Simulate operations

Isolate minimal operation

Minimal sensorimotor interaction

Minimal sensorimotor interaction

Human Dynamic Clamp and the Haken-Kelso-Bunz model

Dumas, G., Guzman, G. C. de, Tognoli, E., & Kelso, J. A. S. (2014). The human dynamic clamp as a paradigm for social interaction.

Kelso, J. A. S. (2008). Haken-Kelso-Bunz model.

Isolate minimal operation

Minimal sensorimotor interaction

Human Dynamic Clamp and the Haken-Kelso-Bunz model

Perceptual Crossing Paradigm

Zapata-Fonseca, L., Dotov, D., Fossion, R., & Froese, T. (2016). Time-Series Analysis of Embodied Interaction: Movement Variability and Complexity Matching As Dyadic Properties.

Kojima, H., Froese, T., Oka, M., Iizuka, H., & Ikegami, T. (2017). A Sensorimotor Signature of the Transition to Conscious Social Perception: Co-regulation of Active and Passive Touch.

Isolate minimal operation

Interpret parts, wholes, and relations

Conversation Analysis

Dingemanse, M., & Floyd, S. (2014). Conversation across cultures.

Informal talk can be studied across different human societies: it can be inspected for how it helps construct distinct linguistic and cultural worlds and for how it may itself be subject to linguistic and cultural inflection. Any stretch of conversation shows that participants rely on a combination of interactional, linguistic, and cultural competencies to bring off even seemingly simple sequences

Interpret parts, wholes, and relations

Conversation Analysis

Anthropology & Ethnography

... ethnographers typically make this a major epistemological point ... They are seeing the “real world” of everyday life, not some version of it created at their urging and for their benefit, and this version, they think, deserves to be treated as having greater truth value than the potentially less accurate versions produced by other methods.

If you do a survey, you know in advance all the information you can acquire. There may be some surprises in the connections between the items you measure, but there will not be any surprise data, things you didn’t ask about but were told anyway. ... In contrast, fieldworkers cannot insulate themselves from data.

Becker, H. S. (1996). The epistemology of qualitative research.

Interpret parts, wholes, and relations

Conversation Analysis

Anthropology & Ethnography

Interpret parts, wholes, and relations

(Neuro-)phenomenology

Froese, T., & Fuchs, T. (2012). The extended body: A case study in the neurophenomenology of social interaction.

Methods in Embodied Cognitive Science

By Sébastien Lerique

Methods in Embodied Cognitive Science

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