Deictic codes, embodiment of cognition, and the real world

Abstract

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 bindings 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. Abstract: Deictic coding offers a useful model for understanding the interactions between the dorsal and ventral streams of visual processing in the cerebral cortex. By extending Ballard et al.'s ideas on teleassistance, I show how dedicated low-level visuomotor processes in the dorsal stream Abstract: Ballard et al. model eye position as a deictic pointer for spatial perception. Evidence from research on gaze control indicates, however, that shifts in actual eye position are neither necessary nor sufficient to produce shifts in spatial perception. Deictic context is instead provided by the interaction between two deictic pointers; one representing actual eye position, and the other, intended eye position.Ballard et al. present evidence indicating that the spatial context for perception is provided by deictic pointers such as eye position. ACKNOWLEDGMENT Thanks are due to Bruce Bridgeman, Marc Pomplun, Andreas Sprenger, and Pieter Unema for discussion of these issues.Abstract: This commentary raises three questions about the target article: What are pointers or deictic devices? Why insist on deictic codes for cognition rather than deixis simpliciter? And in what sense is cognition embodied, on this view?

Six views of embodied cognition

“…With practice, though, new skills become automatized, reducing cognitive load and circumventing the representational bottleneck. (See Epelboim, 1997, for evidence that automatizing a task reduces the need for offloading work onto the environment.) In effect, prior experience allows whatever representations are necessary for task performance to be built up before the fact.…”

On the Centrality of Physical/Motor Activities in Primary Education

“…All these studies provide evidence that we do not simply inhabit our bodies; we also think with them. The empirical evidence so far for the bodily basis of thinking and its continuity beyond the sensorimotor stage or even well beyond early childhood (e. g., Berluchi & Aglioti, 1997; Epelboim, 1997;Hannaford, 2005;Ito, 1993;Seitz 2000;Wilson, 2001) is something that we should seriously consider. According to Jenson (2005), at a 1995 Annual Society of Neuroscience Conference, it was reported that approximately 80 studies found "strong links between the cerebellum and memory, spatial perception, language, attention, emotion, nonverbal cues, and even decision" (p. 85).…”

A Study of The Effect of Preschool Children’s Participation in Sensorimotor Activities on Their Understanding of the Mechanical Equilibrium of a Balance Beam

“…Multiple intelligences theory did acknowledge that cognitive uniqueness (see Gardner 1993), while more recent findings in the neurosciences have provided support for the bodily basis of concepts and ideas (Seitz 2000;Thelen et al 2001;Wilson 2001). There is now an emerging interdisciplinary research programme called "embodied cognition", which is based on the idea that cognitive processes are deeply based in body's interactions with the world (Beer 2000;Clark 1999;Thelen et al 2001;Wilson 2001;Berluchi and Aglioti 1997;Epelboim 1997;Lakoff and Johnson 1999).…”