Embodied cognition and circular causality: on the role of constitutive autonomy in the reciprocal coupling of perception and action
Frontiers in Psychology October 30, 2015 David Vernon, Robert Lowe, Serge Thill et al. 77 citations
The reciprocal coupling of perception and action is well known: perceptions guide action and actions influence perception. Most research focuses on external behavior, but this article argues that the relationship also involves a constitutive, internal bodily element. The authors contend that cognition, perception, and action are all processes primarily aimed at maintaining an agent's biological autonomy. These processes are inherently circular—self-organizing, self-producing, and self-maintaining. The reciprocal coupling is founded on endogenous roles in constitutive autonomy and circular causality of self-regulation, not merely on sensory-motor contingencies from external behavior. The coupling occurs through the internal milieu of the agent's organismic embodiment. Homeostasis and allostasis contribute to this circular self-regulation.