Arthur Glenberg Embodied Cognition

Embodied cognition is the possibility of unification of neural networks in our brain and direct interaction with the physical world. The body contains, regulates, and shapes the nature of mental activity. Arthur Glenberg argues that our brains guide the body for interacting with the social world (1). When a situation arises, one must analyze and produce a solution given the abilities that the body can perform. For example, when a human is threatened by violence, they do not have a shell to shrink into for protection, whereas a turtle has a hard shell that can protect against most predators. Rather, humans must come up with a better answer to the problem, such as running or fighting. It is theorized our brains guide the body for interaction …show more content…
These are used often in the world of cognitive science, and they will be used to synthesize the ideas of embodied cognition and dynamical/complex systems. Marr’s framework contains the computational level, algorithmic level, and implementational level. At the computational level, an issue is presented and the goal of the issue is described. This is the most general of all the levels. An example of a concept being introduced at the computational level would be to ask what connects our mind and brain to our body. There is no solution given but the goal of how physical and metaphysical concepts are connected is …show more content…
Glenberg hypothesizes that thinking is not isolated from the body, rather, thinking is influenced by the body and the brain interacting with its environment. In an experiment performed by Jessica Witt and Dennis Proffitt, they took anecdotes from different athletes that reported whatever they were hitting looked much bigger when they felt they were doing well in the sport. “During a slump, Joe ‘Ducky’ Medwick of the St. Louis Cardinals said he felt like he was ‘swinging at aspirins’” (Witt, 2005, 1). This was tested with forty-seven players from a co-ed intramural city softball league. They were asked to look at a poster displaying eight black circles, all differing in size. The participants were then told to choose the circle that best represented the size of a softball and then asked for their batting averages. The results were clear. Players who had better success hitting the ball also recalled the ball being bigger than those with lower batting averages. This reflects on the idea of embodied cognition because performance of the athletes depended on their perceptual system to improve their motor functions; in this case they would be able to swing the ball much more frequently. Glenberg decides it is time to consider that the