English Theme Date: Apr 24, 2007 Room: Instructor: Mafuyu Kitahara Material: Thelen, E. (1995) “Time-scale dynamics and the development of an embodied cognition” in R. Port and T. van Gelder (eds.) Mind as motion, Cambridge: MIT Press

3.6 Embodied cognition How do we make sense of the world? NOT through abstract logic But via physical bodily experience Johnson (1987): containment Body in: cloth, room, vehicle… Objects in: cup, box, bag… Language: prepositions Language: metaphor “leave out” = skip, delete, omit Turner (1991): symmetry of body Talmy (1988): “force” in verbs

3.7 Developmental dynamics To reject Piadget’s objectivist Maturationist Developmental data: compelling The rest of this chapter Focus on “force” embodiment Structure: Summary of dynamical systems approach Experimental studies on infants Theoretical implications

3.8 Dynamical systems Human: complex+high-dimensional system Actual behavior: reduction of DF Metaphor: mountain stream Stream bed, water molecule, speed, temperature, wind… too many degrees of freedom Whirl and eddy pattern  only a few DF

3.8 Potential well Metaphor with a ball and gravity Need perturbation (=shake it!) Simple combination of cosine curves

3.8 Potential wells in time Array of potential wells  landscape Evolving and dissolving attractors along the time line Development of: Rolling over Sitting Standing Walking Running … etc