This article comes from Frontiers in Cognition, one of the many open source "Frontiers in" journals available online. He is making what appears to me to be a subtle argument for en embodied cognition that includes semantic representations that are both perception and motor based and language based.
In my estimation (and I am a rank amateur), much of our language (semantic representations) is abstract and disembodied. The exceptions, of which George Lakoff has provide many in his various books, are metaphors that are based in body awareness (actions, locations, movements, and so on).
Just my two, likely irrelevant cents.
Read the whole, very long article.On the need for embodied and dis-embodied cognition
- Department of Philosophy, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, USA
This essay proposes and defends a pluralistic theory of conceptual embodiment. Our concepts are represented in at least two ways: (i) through sensorimotor simulations of our interactions with objects and events and (ii) through sensorimotor simulations of natural language processing. Linguistic representations are “dis-embodied” in the sense that they are dynamic and multimodal but, in contrast to other forms of embodied cognition, do not inherit semantic content from this embodiment. The capacity to store information in the associations and inferential relationships among linguistic representations extends our cognitive reach and provides an explanation of our ability to abstract and generalize. This theory is supported by a number of empirical considerations, including the large body of evidence from cognitive neuroscience and neuropsychology supporting a multiple semantic code explanation of imageability effects.
Introduction
In this essay, I propose and defend a new take on a familiar idea. The familiar idea is that our concepts are encoded in at least two general types of semantic representations: one type that is perception and motor based and another that is language based (Paivio, 1971, 1986). Although most concepts employ both types of representations, abstract concepts tend to depend more on linguistic representations than concrete concepts do. What separates my version of this idea from most previous ones is that I develop it within an embodied approach to cognition (although see Barsalou et al., 2008; Louwerse and Jeuniaux, 2008 for related yet distinct views).
My defense of this new take has three parts. The first part outlines and motivates an embodied approach to concepts based on simulation. The second part examines a challenge that faces any form of embodied cognition: the problem of abstraction. After making the observation that the symbolic structure of language is well suited to solving this problem, I propose that language should be seen as a form of what I refer to as “dis-embodied” cognition. What I mean by this is that linguistic representations are embodied in the neurophysiological sense that they rely on sensorimotor simulation but, unlike other embodied forms of cognition, they do not inherit semantic content from this fact. They do, however, accrue semantic content through their associations and inferential relationships with other linguistic representations. The third part surveys empirical evidence that supports the existence of separate semantic codes.
Embodied Concepts
Historically, cognitive scientists have presumed that higher cognitive processes are carried out by computations involving amodal mental representations (i.e., representations that are not located within a sensorimotor modality). The precise nature of these representations was a matter of some debate. For instance, a great deal of controversy has surrounded the issue of how language-like they might be (Fodor, 1975). The presumption of amodality, however, went largely unquestioned. The strength of this presumption was clearly demonstrated by the heated nature of the debate concerning the possibility that analog perceptual representations might be employed in mental imagery tasks (Pylyshyn, 1973, 1981; Kosslyn and Shwartz, 1977). Now, there is general agreement that behavioral and neural evidence suggests that mental imagery (Kosslyn, 1994) and motor imagery (Jeannerod, 1995; Grèzes and Decety, 2001) depend on sensory and motor representations respectively.
Within the last two decades, a growing number of researchers and philosophers have argued that cognitive science needs to reorient itself with respect to its fundamental assumptions about the nature of mind and cognition. These researchers and philosophers contend that cognitive processes need to be viewed as fundamentally based in our bodily interactions with the world. Clark (1998, p. 506) expresses this view clearly in his economical assertion that, “Biological brains are first and foremost the control systems for biological bodies.” The idea is that we cannot hope to understand the functioning of the brain without appreciating the central role it plays in guiding perception and action. This view has lead to a robust and diverse research program in which investigators examine the possible ways in which thinking, remembering, and understanding language are shaped by the fact that we dynamically interact with our complex physical and social environment by means of perceptual and motor capacities (Wilson, 2002). Embodied theories of cognition often suggest that concepts are understood via sensorimotor simulations. Neural systems that are involved in understanding real objects, actions, and events in the world are used to internally simulate those objects, actions, and events at later points in time.
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