Less-is-More and Embodiment – How the Body Simplifies Cognition

Abstract

Less-is-more describes a principle underlying decision making. Embodiment, on the other hand, argues that the body plays an important role in processes that have classically been characterized as mental. We argue that decision making is facilitated by reducing the amount of mental computation (less-is-more) through the exploitation of the constant stream of rich sensorimotor information (embodiment), a concept we call LIME. LIME argues that, via embodiment, computation is ‘constrained’ by and ‘off-loaded’ into the body. Constraining involves the body reducing the input or generated options before they enter into mental computation. Off-loading involves the body or the environment performing the computation. LIME underlies cognition generally, but is most accessibly demonstrated in sport phenomena, and we use this domain to sketch out the breadth of this concept in four case studies. LIME connects first principles of cognition to real life phenomena, providing a mechanics to ecological rationality and naturalistic behavior.