Embodied cognition and circular causality: on the role of constitutive autonomy in the reciprocal coupling of perception and action
David Vernon, Robert Lowe, Serge Thill, Tom Ziemke
Frontiers in Psychology October 30, 2015 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01660 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Philosophy of mind |
| Keywords | Embodied cognition Perception Action physics Reciprocal Reciprocity cultural anthropology Contingency Causality physics Autonomy Cognitive psychology Affordance Cognitive science Epistemology |
| Citations | 77 |
| Key points | Argues that the reciprocal coupling of perception and action is founded on endogenous roles in the agent's constitutive autonomy and circular causality of self-regulation, not on exogenous sensory-motor contingencies. |
Abstract
The reciprocal coupling of perception and action in cognitive agents has been firmly established: perceptions guide action but so too do actions influence what is perceived. While much has been said on the implications of this for the agent's external behavior, less attention has been paid to what it means for the internal bodily mechanisms which underpin cognitive behavior. In this article, we wish to redress this by reasserting that the relationship between cognition, perception, and action involves a constitutive element as well as a behavioral element, emphasizing that the reciprocal link between perception and action in cognition merits a renewed focus on the system dynamics inherent in constitutive biological autonomy. Our argument centers on the idea that cognition, perception, and action are all dependent on processes focussed primarily on the maintenance of the agent's autonomy. These processes have an inherently circular nature-self-organizing, self-producing, and self-maintaining-and our goal is to explore these processes and suggest how they can explain the reciprocity of perception and action. Specifically, we argue that the reciprocal coupling is founded primarily on their endogenous roles in the constitutive autonomy of the agent and an associated circular causality of global and local processes of self-regulation, rather than being a mutual sensory-motor contingency that derives from exogenous behavior. Furthermore, the coupling occurs first and foremost via the internal milieu realized by the agent's organismic embodiment. Finally, we consider how homeostasis and the related concept of allostasis contribute to this circular self-regulation.
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Citations in the library
Cited by 5
- The body of knowledge: On the role of the living body in grounding embodied cognition Biosyst. October 1, 2016
- Self-Improvising Memory: A Perspective on Memories as Agential, Dynamically Reinterpreting Cognitive Glue Entropy May 31, 2024
- The Circularity of the Embodied Mind. Frontiers in Psychology 2020
- Do Not Neglect the Body and Action: The Emergence of Embodiment Approaches to Understanding Human Development. Perceptual and Motor Skills June 2019
- How Organisms Gained Causal Independence and How It Might Be Quantified. Biology June 29, 2018
Cites 6
- Interoceptive inference, emotion, and the embodied self Trends in Cognitive Sciences October 12, 2013
- The Tree of Knowledge: The Biological Roots of Human Understanding Complicity An International Journal of Complexity and Education July 1, 2007
- Measuring Autonomy and Emergence via Granger Causality Artificial Life January 12, 2010
- Horizons for the Enactive Mind: Values, Social Interaction, and Play 2010
- Radical embodiment: neural dynamics and consciousness. Trends in Cognitive Sciences October 1, 2001
and 1 more in the library