Essay Sample on Embodied Cognition & Education: Impact of Body on Perception & Learning

Introduction

Embodied cognition tends to consider that human perception is grounded in the sensory-motor functions as well as the internal states of the body. Cognition and education are directly connected, and student learning is the primary goal of each instructor, no matter the teaching methods. Perception depends on the body that is the emotions, actions, sensory-motor systems, and body morphology. Concerning traditional cognitivism, cognition is all about the level of thinking and, in essence, considered as symbolic processing. One of the perfect aspects of human cognitivism is the capability to identify and represent things hence adopting cognitive representation. Embodied cognition is based on various issues.

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Mental Representation

Cognition lies in the conception of mental representation that claims that the illustrations tend to be symbolic structures with linguistic and combinatory features that act as vehicle content that appeal to explaining a specific behavior. Mental representation tends to be nominal, and observations are related to their referents due to the nature in which they are deployed and formed. Internal images are employed in language and concept formation as well as body experience. The view is based on essential principles that are; information that is conveyed by mental representation does exhibit no modality-specific character; therefore, illustrations tend to be autonomous from the perceptual systems, operational details, and bodily actions. Second, knowledge is considered to be proportionally organized, with various words meaning emerging from the relations of different internal symbols. Finally, internal representations are used in instructing motor programs that are mostly independent and separate from overall cognition; therefore, the cognitive process is not entirely shaped by various bodily actions.

The anti-representationalist view that is more influential is the dynamical systems theory that minimizes and sometimes denies the overall centralized representational processor. An internal model reproducing an external environment is used by the cognitive agent to direct behavior from the world. The Dynamic system theory explains the adaptive behavior in response to terms of embodiment and embeddedness.

Another view that adapts the notion of mental representation is the Barsalou's perceptual symbols theory. It assumes that human cognition does not entail the modal description that bears arbitrary relations to referents in the globe rather representations whose various patterns implies the color of an object in its absence. It is during imagery that neural systems are recruited; hence the color is perceived. Therefore cognitive processing reactivates sensorimotor features that activate perceptual stimulus.

Nativism

Cognition develops due to the dynamic interplay of learning and innateness. Weak and robust nativism forms exist, and strong nativism is based on various theses; the internal processes and structures required for the development processes of a person are complex, vibrant, and compelling (Johnson, 2015). The external means to an individual perform a secondary casual function in the overall development and acquisition of various structures. Intense nativism has resulted in remarkable results in the cognitive development field development of infants in the domain that involves physics and arithmetic. It is considered an antidevelopment area, and conclusions arrived that the mind consists of wired traits that tend to unfold maturation with the idea of flexibility and learning. Embodied cognition does not possess distinctive implications for the debate between empiricism and nativism. Still, embodied cognition contributes to the specific exploration of the functions that the body performs concerning cognitive processing. The service results in challenges to strong nativist.

Integrated cognitive science downplays various internal richness required to complete multiple complex behaviors as cognitive processing and development are impacted by perturbation across various environmental changes and body actions. Body action is a mighty challenge on how different humans perceive it. It enables specific body interactions and experiences to affect the conception of information and overall understanding of linguistic meaning. Multiple embodied interactions shape and control the particular mechanisms that tend to be responsible for processing information, therefore, offering body support as a regulator and distributor of various details. Also, a strong nativist is challenged when having consideration of cognition beyond modality senses. The primary issue relates to how innate language-specific information is as it enables people to explain the different aspects of linguistic performance among infants.

However, language disposition depends on environmental exposure factors that include working memory and cognitive development. For example, the first language among infants is necessary for what children know and understand about some objects and events that they encounter. The knowledge enables them to develop a map of specific words. The information children receive from their adults and guardians has an impact on language development and, therefore, very sensitive to pick the issues and regularities they frequently hear like the sounds, words, and grammar constructions. Children learn quickly from social interactions. It is through social and parental factors that impact the children's healthy development and the production of information vocabulary that is an s result of parental monitoring of language and socio-economic factors.

Modularity Issue

Modular systems tend to be specific, independent, and function in a high processing way. Central cognition in the restricted mode is a sharp distinction from a peripheral system such as the motor control and perception system. However, the central cognition is challenged by various scholars; the criticism argues that the higher cognition processes meet the overall modularity criteria. It is clear that cognition view is modular in the narrow sense and spread across developmental, cognitive psychology, and evolutionary perspective (Foglia & Wilson, 2018). The modularity approach implies that the central cognition performs work and cognitive language with the peripheral process through the provision of input and execution of significant instructions.

A perfect example of embodied experience relates to the word that exemplifies the human body as a constraint is the Greenberg’s Hypothesis. The approach assumes a more significant understanding of a sentence is realized by activating some schemas while recruiting the neural mechanisms active to enable behavior. Embodied possibilities challenge construal of a word meaning as the sensorimotor processes result in language understanding.

Learning and Embodied Cognition

Student learning is a primary issue related to embodied cognition and is a major goal of each instructor, no matter the teaching method they apply. The instructional techniques used do vary between technology-centered to human-centered methods as the methods have benefits towards achieving the primary goals. A perfect solution to the learning problem entails the use of embodied cognition that involves how the human body and mind work to create the human experience. The physical actions performed by humans and those shown around people tend to shape the overall experience that develops people's mental knowledge. People around can significantly influence your cognition through mirror neurons that are always activated when watching other people act in their ways. Concerning learning, the embodied cognition approach has an assumption that thought and various human actions tend to be influenced by sensory experience (Foglia & Wilson, 2018). Therefore, instructional movement and the use of different representational gestures are considered to increase in a learning setup, which in turn increases the embodied cognition due to imitation's neural activity, hence improving the overall performance of students. A perfect example is the use of gesture inhuman Centered teaching that have communicative and cognitive functions in student learning.

Concept of Embodied Cognition and Rene Descartes mind-body dualism

Mind-body dualism is fundamentally distinct of nature and implies that the body differs in meaning and refers to different entities of the human. Therefore the mind-body dualism opposes any approach that identifies the mind with the brain regarded as a physical mechanism. For Descartes, the theory of mind is an immaterial approach that engages in some activities that are imagination, sensation, and rational thinking (landy, 2017). Embodied cognition, the idea that the account is connected to the human body, and the body influence the mind is a counterintuitive idea. In contrast, dualism theory by Descartes claims that there exists a significant difference between the body and mind as the body is divisible and the mind inseparable, therefore, the thought of a human being is different from the body. The physical world impacts cognition.

Conclusion

Cognition is embodied when it depends on the features like the physical body. It is based on their significant issues: the nature of mental representation, nativism, and modularity of the mind. The traditional problems view the existence of internal images as being highly specialized systems in the human brain. Embodied cognition is a product of neural processes, and the body is considered a constraining, distribution factor. For Descartes, the theory of mind is an immaterial approach involving various activities like imagination, sensation, and rational thinking. It assumes that there exists a difference between the body and the mind.

References

Foglia, L., & Wilson, R. (2018). Embodied cognition. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science, 4(3), 319-325. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1226

Johnson, M. (2015). Embodied mind, embodied meaning, embodied thought. The Philosophers' Magazine, (68), 71-76. doi: 10.5840/tpm20156815

landy, d. (2017). descartes' compositional theory of mental representatioN. Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, 92(2), 214-231. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-0114.2011.01394.x