An ecological approach to disjunctivism

In this paper I claim that perceptual discriminatory skills rely on a suitable type of environment as an enabling condition for their exercise. This is because of the constitutive connection between environment and perceptual discriminatory skills, inasmuch as such connection is construed from an ecological approach. The exercise of a discriminatory skill yields knowledge of affordances of objects, properties, or events in the surrounding environment. This is practical knowledge in the first-person perspective. An organism learns to perceive an object by becoming sensitized to its affordances. I call this position ecological disjunctivism. A corollary of this position is that a case of perception and its corresponding case of hallucination—which is similar to the former only in some respects—are different in nature. I show then how the distinguishability problem is addressed by ecological disjunctivism.

     

An ecological approach to learning

This paper introduces a special journal issue devoted to the study of learning in ecological and developmental contexts. In the past, the dominant approach to the study of learning has depended upon the choice of arbitrary problems, stimuli, and responses to guarantee the generality of principles discovered in the laboratory. Recently, though, there has been considerable interest in integrating an ecological (functional) account of learning with the strengths of the classic laboratory approach. One form of integration is to use the technology of the laboratory to look for the operation of general learning laws in ecological problems. The approach favored here is to treat learning as a biological phenomenon by first placing it within a functional system of behavior, and then by analyzing where and how learning modifies the operation of that system. Because the results of such analyses are defined with respect to functioning systems rather than procedural paradigms, the ecological approach readily makes contact with issues in evolution, development, and physiology, an ability not completely shared by the classic general-process approach. Concerns about laboratory versus field, function versus mechanism, generality of results, and adaptive “storytelling” can be resolved or further clarified by the present approach. The papers in this issue represent a cross-section of research stemming from an ecological approach to learning, and provide specific analyses of how learning modifies and is expressed in functional systems of behavior.     

The role of representative design in an ecological approach to cognition

Egon Brunswik argued that psychological processes are adapted to environmental properties. He proposed the method of representative design to capture these processes and advocated that psychology be a science of organism-environment relations. Representative design involves randomly sampling stimuli from the environment or creating stimuli in which environmental properties are preserved. This departs from systematic design. The authors review the development of representative design, examine its use in judgment and decision-making research, and demonstrate the effect of design on research findings. They suggest that some of the practical difficulties associated with representative design may be overcome with modern technologies. The importance of representative design in psychology and the implications of this method for ecological approaches to cognition are discussed.     

Deictic codes for the embodiment of cognition

To describe phenomena that occur at different time scales, computational models of the brain must incorporate different levels of abstraction. At time scales of approximately 1/3 of a second, orienting movements of the body play a crucial role in cognition and form a useful computational level--more abstract than that used to capture natural phenomena but less abstract than what is traditionally used to study high-level cognitive processes such as reasoning. At this "embodiment level," the constraints of the physical system determine the nature of cognitive operations. The key synergy is that at time scales of about 1/3 of a second, the natural sequentiality of body movements can be matched to the natural computational economies of sequential decision systems through a system of implicit reference called deictic in which pointing movements are used to bind objects in the world to cognitive programs. This target article focuses on how deictic binding make it possible to perform natural tasks. Deictic computation provides a mechanism for representing the essential features that link external sensory data with internal cognitive programs and motor actions. One of the central features of cognition, working memory, can be related to moment-by-moment dispositions of body features such as eye movements and hand movements.     

具身认知视角下的消费者行为

具身理论已经成为消费者行为研究中一个重要的方向, 产生了大量的研究成果, 但国内相关研究却非常匮乏。为了推动国内研究在这一领域的发展, 从视觉、触觉、味觉和运动知觉这几个方向对相关研究进行了综述。在视觉特征方面, 主要考察了上下、左右和大小特征的作用; 在触觉方面, 主要考察了软硬、重量和温度的作用, 在味觉方面, 主要考察了甜和苦的作用; 在运动知觉方面, 主要考察了上下运动、趋近远离运动和关闭动作的作用。最后, 根据以往研究的局限, 提出了未来研究方向。     

Using Dynamic Field Theory to extend the embodiment stance toward higher cognition

The embodiment stance emphasizes that cognitive processes unfold continuously in time, are constantly linked to the sensory and motor surfaces, and adapt through learning and development. Dynamic Field Theory (DFT) is a neurally based set of concepts that has turned out to be useful for understanding how cognition emerges in an embodied and situated system. We explore how the embodiment stance may be extended beyond those forms of cognition that are closest to sensorimotor processes. The core elements of DFT are dynamic neural fields (DNFs), patterns of activation defined over different kinds of spaces. These may include retinal space and visual feature spaces, spaces spanned by movement parameters such as movement direction and amplitude, or abstract spaces like the ordinal axis along which sequences unfold. Instances of representation that stand for perceptual objects, motor plans, or action intentions are peaks of activation in the DNFs. We show how such peaks may arise from input and are stabilized by intra-field interaction. Given a neural mechanism for instantiation, the neuronal couplings between DNFs implement cognitive operations. We illustrate how these mechanisms can be used to enable architectures of dynamic neural fields to perform cognitive functions such as acquiring and updating scene representations, using grounded spatial language, and generating sequences of actions. Implementing these DFT models in autonomous robots demonstrates how these cognitive functions can be enacted in embodied, situated systems.     

An efficient coding approach to the debate on grounded cognition

The debate between the amodal and the grounded views of cognition seems to be stuck. Their only substantial disagreement is about the vehicle or format of concepts. Amodal theorists reject the grounded claim that concepts are couched in the same modality-specific format as representations in sensory systems. The problem is that there is no clear characterization of (modal or amodal) format or its neural correlate. In order to make the disagreement empirically meaningful and move forward in the discussion we need a neurocognitive criterion for representational format. I argue that efficient coding models in computational neuroscience can be used to characterize modal codes: These are codes which satisfy special informational demands imposed by sensory tasks. Additionally, I examine recent studies on neural coding and argue that although they do not provide conclusive evidence for either the grounded or the amodal views, they can be used to determine what predictions these approaches can make and what experimental and theoretical developments would be required to settle the debate.     

An encoding-complex approach to numerical cognition in Chinese-English bilinguals.

We present a model of the cognitive architecture of basic numerical skills in adult Chinese-English bilinguals. The model is based on data reported by Campbell, Kanz, and Xue (1999) and combines Dehaene and Cohen's triple-code theory with Campbell and Clark's encoding-complex approach to modeling number processing. Participants were required to name, add or multiply Arabic or Mandarin numerals and to respond in English or Chinese. They also performed magnitude comparisons on pairs of Arabic or Mandarin numerals. The proposed model of their performance on this set of tasks assumes 1) that number processing is modular with respect to representational code (e.g., visual, visuo-spatial, verbal) rather than with respect to numerical function, 2) task-specific communication between representational codes is interactive rather than additive, and 3) memory for arithmetic facts is at least partially language-based and our Chinese-English bilinguals possessed both Chinese and English-language number-fact representations. We provide new analyses of the arithmetic data and a review of research on the role of language in simple arithmetic to substantiate our claims about linguistic codes for number-fact memory.     

An ecological approach to child and family clinical and counseling psychology

The ecological model of child and family clinical and counseling psychology considers mental health service delivery within a health maintenance framework, approaching the complexity of children's behavior in a systematic and organized fashion using science-based intervention practices. The service delivery framework integrates assessment, intervention, and motivation at all phases of an intervention. Assessments enhance the participants' and professionals' appraisal, which in turn impact motivation to change. Interventions are sensitive to assessment-based targets and participant motivation. A menu of interventions range from assessment, feedback, and brief interventions to more extensive mental health services, potentially integrated with other community agencies and school settings. The ecological model suggests revisions in the conceptualization of child and adolescent psychopathology, training for mental health professionals, and strategies for the design and testing of interventions. In general, a reformulation of mental heath services for children and families within an ecological framework enhances the potential for integrating science and practice.     

An ecological approach to mechanisms determining individual differences in perception

In 1982 Satow proposed four hypothetical properties determining mechanisms of individual differences in perceptions; these were supported by results of a factor analysis of responses to a 58-item check list. Present work confirmed the four properties (intense sensitivity, temporal sensitivity, sensory-motor reactivity, and possible range of total stimuli), and obtained a property, preference for intense and prolonged stimuli, from a principal component analysis of data from a 60-item list given to 316 subjects. The 60-item list is a revised version of the 58-item list which asked subjects about their subjective sensitiveness and preferences for environmental sensory stimuli (visual, auditory, olfactory, and tactile). Within subjects relationships among these properties are interindependent, since for individuals correlations of factor-score estimates between pairs of these properties were near zero. This interindepedence supported a model of four hypothetical types of individuals, explaining the individual differences on the grounds of the relations among the properties.     

An ecological approach to cognitive enhancement: Complex motor training

Cognitive training has received a lot of attention recently, yielding findings that can be conflicting and controversial. In this paper, we present a novel approach to cognitive training based on complex motor activities. In a randomized controlled design, participants were assigned to one of three conditions: aerobic exercise, working memory training or designed sport — an intervention specifically tailored to include both physical and cognitive demands. After training for eight weeks, the designed sport group showed the largest gains in all cognitive measures, illustrating the efficacy of complex motor activities to enhance cognition. Designed sport training also revealed impressive health benefits, namely decreased heart rate and blood pressure. In this period of skepticism over the efficacy of computerized cognitive training, we discuss the potential of ecological interventions targeting both cognition and physical fitness, and propose some possible applications.     

Sensory marketing,embodiment, and grounded cognition: A review and introduction

There has been a recent swell of interest in marketing as well as psychology pertaining to the role of sensory experiences in judgment and decision making. Within marketing, the field of sensory marketing has developed which explores the role of the senses in consumer behavior. In psychology, the dominant computer metaphor of information processing has been challenged by researchers demonstrating various manners in which mental activity is grounded in sensory experience. These findings are arduous to explain using the amodal model of the human mind. In this introduction, we first delineate key assumptions of the information processing paradigm and then discuss some of the key conceptual challenges posed by the research generally appearing under the titles of embodiment, grounded cognition, or sensory marketing. We then address the use of bodily feelings as a source of information; next, we turn to the role of context sensitive perception, imagery, and simulation in consumer behavior, and finally discuss the role of metaphors. Through this discourse, we note the contributions to the present special issue as applicable.     

An alternative approach to analysis of mental states in experimental social cognition research

Establishing the mental states that affect human behavior is a primary goal of experiments on social cognitive processes. Such mental states can be manipulated only indirectly; therefore, after delivering a manipulation, researchers attempt to verify that the mental state of interest, the representation of a mental state, was in fact changed by the manipulation and that this change caused the observed effect. The usual procedure is to examine mean differences in a measure of the mental state of interest (a manipulation check) among experimental conditions and to infer whether the manipulation was effective. We describe a procedure that strengthens the construct validity of manipulations and, hence, causal inferences in experiments that focus on mental states using analyses familiar to most researchers. This procedure employs a traditional manipulation check that assesses the relationship between manipulations and mental states but, additionally, tests the relationship between the manipulation check and dependent measure.     

Cross-cultural differences and similarities in proneness to shame: An adaptationist and ecological approach

People vary in how easily they feel ashamed, that is, in their shame proneness. According to the information threat theory of shame, variation in shame proneness should, in part, be regulated by features of a person's social ecology. On this view, shame is an emotion program that evolved to mitigate the likelihood or costs of reputation-damaging information spreading to others. In social environments where there are fewer possibilities to form new relationships (i.e., low relational mobility), there are higher costs to damaging or losing existing ones. Therefore, shame proneness toward current relationship partners should increase as perceived relational mobility decreases. In contrast, individuals with whom one has little or no relationship history are easy to replace, and so shame-proneness towards them should not be modulated by relational mobility. We tested these predictions cross-culturally by measuring relational mobility and shame proneness towards friends and strangers in Japan, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Japanese subjects were more shame-prone than their British and American counterparts. Critically, lower relational mobility was associated with greater shame proneness towards friends (but not strangers), and this relationship partially mediated the cultural differences in shame proneness. Shame proneness appears tailored to respond to relevant features of one's social ecology.