Do Not Neglect the Body and Action: The Emergence of Embodiment Approaches to Understanding Human Development

Abstract

It is becoming clear that to truly understand what it is to be human, focusing scientific efforts on the mind alone is insufficient. We are embodied minds, living and acting in a world full of meaningful things. In this article, we discuss how science has been informed by important research insights into the close relationship between the body, the mind, and the world. These interactions can be translated into embodied perspectives of human development. We provide evidence that perception, cognition, emotion, human relations, and behavior are grounded in our bodies from the beginning of our lives. From this perspective, the body cannot be assumed to be simply an effector for cognition or an instrument for collecting information for the brain. This comprehensive review and debate of embodied-related literature is accompanied by the identification of theoretical challenges and practical applications that will shape research for years to come.

Effects of Movement Improvisation and Aerobic Dancing on Motor Creativity and Divergent Thinking

“…“The specific structural, functional, affective, relational, and symbolic features of our bodies play a critical role in our perceptions, cognitions, emotions, behaviors, and human relations”(Marmeleira & Duarte Santos, 2019, p.411). Despite the domain‐specific importance of creativity enhancement training, the above embodied cognition principle supports the assumption that movement interventions could also positively impact cognitive skills, such as divergent thinking.…”

“…Cognition depends on the types of embodied experiences that one has, which interact closely with environmental conditions (Marmeleira & Duarte Santos, 2019). When it comes to unleashing ones’ creative potential, moving in a structured way is not sufficient.…”

“…The current study calls for more multi‐modal interventions, which combine creativity enhancement with movement activities. Embodiment has only recently joined the domain of cognitive science (Marmeleira & Duarte Santos, 2019). Most research using body‐oriented interventions to enhance cognitive functioning have done so with psychopathologic (Galbusera, Fellin, & Fuchs, 2019), elderly (Pereira, Rosado, Cruz‐Ferreira, & Marmeleira, 2018), or children populations (Frith et al, 2019).…”

“…First, because most improvisation interventions reported in the literature focus on verbal exercises, it is unclear whether the motor component of improvisation has a role to play in the optimization of creative thoughts and movements. Yet, embodiment is imperative for complex cognitive functioning (see Marmeleira & Duarte Santos, 2019, for a review), thus movement represents a relevant tool to develop the mental architecture needed for creativity (Frith, Loprinzi, & Miller, 2019). In line with these recent advances, we designed an improvisation intervention using movement only (i.e., no use of verbal skills).…”

Different Aspects of Emotional Awareness in Relation to Motor Cognition and Autism Traits

“…The relationship between action and emotion is central to theories of embodied cognition. Embodied cognition represents a general school of thought characterized by many theories, though best summarized with the general idea that the mind is rooted in the whole body, rather than being a piece of “software” installed in the “hardware” of the brain (Marmeleira and Santos, 2019). Within embodiment theories, interaction between the body and the environment drives the formation of perception, cognitions, and knowledge (Varela et al, 2017), as well as emotion (Niedenthal et al, 2005; Damasio, 2018).…”