Continuous Dynamics in Real-Time Cognition

Abstract

Real-time cognition is best described not as a sequence of logical operations performed on discrete symbols but as a continuously changing pattern of neuronal activity. The continuity in these dynamics indicates that, in between describable states of mind, mental activity does not lend itself to the linguistic labels relied on by much of psychology. We discuss eye-tracking and mousetracking evidence for this temporal continuity and provide geometric visualizations of mental activity, depicting it as a continuous trajectory through a state space (a multidimensional space in which locations correspond to mental states). When the state of the system travels toward a frequently visited region of that space, the destination may constitute recognition of a particular word or a particular object; but on the way there, the majority of the mental trajectory is in intermediate regions of that space, revealing graded mixtures of mental states.

Dynamics of cognition

“…This contrasts with the assumption that cognition involves discrete computational steps Volume 3, November/December 2012tantamount to discontinuous jumps in mental states. Spivey and colleagues 122,123 outlined one broad approach to conceptualizing cognition as a continuous, dynamical process. In this perspective, cognitive processes are understood as trajectories that evolve continuously in a very high-dimensional, neural state space.…”

“…Cognition 'leaks' into action; motor responses reveal the underlying perception, decision making, categorization, and other types of cognitive processes as they are occurring simultaneously with the early stages of producing the response. A related, novel hypothesis, inspired by the work by Spivey and colleagues on the continuity of mental processes, 122,123 is that cognition may not just 'leak' into response trajectories, but the motor dynamics of response trajectories might likewise influence cognition. For example, decisions could be biased toward a certain response option if the motor system is perturbed toward it during the execution of the response.…”

Typing pictures: Linguistic processing cascades into finger movements

“…This is typically considered more related to peripheral stages of response execution (e.g., Logan & Crump, 2011). The need to go beyond just measuring response onset time has been frequently noted (e.g., Abrams & Balota, 1991;Balota & Abrams, 1995; see also Bangert, Abrams, & Balota, 2012;Spivey & Dale, 2006;Spivey, Grosjean, & Knoblich, 2005). Typewriting makes possible precise measures of execution after response onset in the context of a genuine language production task.…”

Swing it to the left, swing it to the right: enacting flexible spatial language using a neurodynamic framework

“…The evidence supporting the role for the body and real-time dynamics in language is broad and includes motiondependent action word processing (Glenberg and Kaschak 2002), the activation of motor circuits when listening to action-related sentences (Tettamanti et al 2005), signatures of continuous dynamic processes in spoken word recognition and semantic categorization (Spivey and Dale 2006), and the synchronization of speech and gesture (McNeill 1992(McNeill , 2003). Yet, despite this expanding empirical and theoretical picture, a formalized theoretical framework for embodied linguistic processes has yet to emerge.…”