Embodied psych

• embodied psych considers information from the mind/perception and the body/environment/actions

  • the person is an active element in the environment
  • moving and perceiving to carry out more action
• SImilar to cognitivism

  • environment is interpreted by the mind
  • interpretation lead to behavior
• similar to behaviorism

  • stimuli in environment leads to observable behavior
• Replacement hypothesis

  • shapiro 2011
  • perception-action couplings are all over the body/brain/environment
  • used in cognition
  • need for specific objects + processes goes away
  • replaced by different objects + processes to form non-linear dynamic systems
  • inevitable once you allow the body and environment into the cognitive mix
• Outfielder problem

  • how do people catch fast moving small objects
  • cognitive - work out the speed/angle and intercept
  • ball is too small and fast for this to work tho
  • the fielders move until ball looks like its moving towards them making the ball look static in visual fields
  • based purely on perception of the world than thinking
• affordances = what an object allows you to do/suggests you do with it

  • high affordance = good design where you can match the object to action easily
  • easy to understand how to use it
  • example = handle on the pull side of door, flat side on push
  • Low affordance example = things not starting from the to left, where we normally start to read
  • not very natural flow of action
• Affordances in nature

  • e.g spider webs
  • simple creators yet complex object
  • affordances are natural and high affordance must be a natural reaction to environment
  • simple rules interact with environment to produce results that aren't the intention but a goal of building the end result
  • no communication or intent, just a simple set of rules
• Emergent behavior

  • complex results emerging from simple rules with no intention or planning
  • e.g stacking rocks, walking
  • Walking - you lean forward and catch yourself with legs. to stop you lean back
  • walk without conscious control
  • somatic movement
• Somatic movement = movement that is performed consciously with the intention of focusing on the internal experience of movement rather than the external appearance

  • dance
  • visually imagine an object and them transform into it in a particular way of movement
  • interactioning with the same affordances as if the object was real
  • when dancer were trained using imagination their creativity improved
  • shows those who had been taught imagery were better at directing others
• The Savannah Hypothesis (Orions 1980/86)

  • humans have a preference for the tree shapes that provided early homids safety in the African savannah
  • asked ps to rate what tree they liked best, most said the African tree
• Stress reduction theory (Ulrich, 1981)

  • natures scenes activate our parasympathetic nervous system in ways that reduce stress
  • due to our innate connection to the world
  • particular natural landscapes tended to provide humans with opportunities for gain and places for safty
• Attention restoration (Kaplan and Kaplan 1989)

  • thought naturally flow away from the mind
  • recovery from mental fatigue
  • soft fascination, reduce internal noise, quieten the internal space
  • encourages reflection on one's higher order goals
  • uses attention as if its a limited resource
• Attention resoration critiques

  • other models don't view attention as limited
  • just means you're processing things
  • improves lots of cognitive tasks, not just those needing attention
  • fascination is untestable as its very undefined
• Eerland 2011

  • eiffel tower
  • lean left or right and guess how tall
  • lean left = 300m, lean right = 312, upright = 320m
  • taught to think of numbers as linear, low number on left so leaning left means lower guess
• Witt 2007

  • use disc to judge steepness of a hill
  • overestimating slant
  • if it's steep we wont go up
• Bhalla 1999

  • heavy backpacks
  • heavier bag= steep estimate
  • made task harder and cost more energy so steep estimate mean we won't go up
  • body tellin you not to climb it
• Schnall 2010

  • ribena normal vs light
  • more glucose = more energy = lower estimate = reduced cost of walking up the hill
• Schnall 2008

  • friends stood with ps
  • made tasks seem less daunting so lower estimate
  • same effect as ribena
• Schnall 2014

  • pushing or pulling action towards hill
  • pull = approach = flexion = overestimate
  • push = avoid = extension = underestimate
• Action economy

  • implicitly assess our environment in terms of the actions it affords
  • if interact uses more effect we perceive it as harder
  • availability of energy makes the interaction easier