Human Mind is Determined by the Body in the Emodiment Theory

What is embodiment? The embodiment theory holds that the nature of the human mind is largely determined by the form of the human body. Embodied cognition reflects the argument that the motor system influences our cognition, just as the mind influences bodily actions. People could be more effective if they thought/processed and planned and perceived as little as possible. A person’s intelligence would be used towards only handling the minimal amount of information necessary to make their behavior appropriate and more desirable to society. Our physical experience of the world and our spatial awareness, our bodily movement, and the way we manipulate objects provide the pattern for how we reason about the world. Reason is independent of the body and the body constitutes in cognition.

Where does the mind stop and the rest of the world begin? Some accept the demarcations of skin and skull, and say that what is outside the body is outside the mind. Others are impressed by arguments suggesting that the meaning of our words aren’t in our mind, and hold that this externalism about meaning carries over into an externalism about mind. We advocate a very different sort of externalism: an active externalism, based on the active role of the environment in driving cognitive processes.

What is memory for and how does it work? Suppose that memory and conceptualization work in the service of perception and action. Conceptualization is the encoding of patterns of possible physical interaction with a three-dimensional world. These patterns are constrained by the structure of the environment, the structure of our bodies, and memory. Thus, how we perceive and conceive of the environment is determined by the types of bodies we have. Such ...

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...visual information is processed to extract identity, location, and ways that we might interact with objects. A prominent anatomical distinction is drawn between the "what" and "where" pathways in visual processing. However, the commonly labeled "where" pathways is also the "how" pathway, at least partially dedicated to action.

Off-line cognition is body-based. Even when we are separated from the environment, the activity of the mind is grounded in mechanisms that evolved for interaction with the environment- that is, mechanisms of sensory processing and motor control. This is shown with infants or toddlers best. Children utilize skills and abilities they were born with, such as sucking, grasping, and listening, to learn more about the environment. The skills are broken down into five main categories that combine sensory with motor skills, sensorimotor functions.