English Theme 45 3'63'9

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English Theme 45 3.6-3.9

• Date Apr 24, 2007
• Room 8-405
• 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

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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

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3.7 Developmental dynamics

• To reject Piadgets 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

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3.8 Dynamical systems

• Human complexhigh-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

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3.8 Potential well

• Metaphor with a ball and gravity
• Need perturbation (shake it!)
• Simple combination of cosine curves

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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