PSY 2403: Human-Technology Interaction Lecture no. 4: The Embodied Mind Paradigm: Kjell Ivar

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PSY 2403 Human-Technology InteractionLecture
no. 4 The Embodied Mind Paradigm Kjell
Ivar ØvergårdCand. Polit
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Aim of this lecture

• You should
• Understand the central tenets of The Embodied
  Mind approach.
• Be able to differentiate Embodiment from the
  information processing approach to
  Human-Technology Interaction.
• Describe what the placement of the Embodied
  Mind-approach in relation to the design process.
• Be able to put the Embodied Mind approach into
  the historical perspective of Human
  Factors-research.
• Ask interesting questions during and after the
  lecture!

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The Embodied Mind approach 1History

• Surfaced in the phenomenological philosophy of of
  Heidegger (1927) and Merleau-Ponty (1962)
• Appeared in psychology movement science in the
  mid./late1970s
• Began to influence Human Factors research during
  the mid./late 1980s
• Altered the focus away from information
  processing towards meaningful representations and
  distributed activity

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The embodied mind approach 2Central aspects

• Cognition and bodily movements are inseparable
• There are no disembodied planner or problem
  solver in the brain
• The brain is an coordinative organ, not the seat
  of problem solving and cognition
• The focus are on human activity as a temporally
  and spatially extended process.
• Human cognition and movement are emergent
  properties of a reciprocal interaction between a
  biological system (the body) and an environment

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Embodiment Human-Technology Interaction
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Embodiment Two aspects

• There are two different conceptualisations of
  Embodiment (see Hirose, 2002).
• 1) The state of being embodied
• This aspect is partly related to ontology
• 2) The act of embodying
• The way which humans relate to/in the world

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The state of being embodied

• The mental structures of humans are related
  to/shaped by their bodily constitution and the
  world that this body inhabits (see Lakoff
  Johnson, 1999).
• That thought is thus embodied-containing within
  it the very essence of our bodily experience. ...
  What Infants do in everyday life, what they
  perceive, how they act, and what they remember
  are joined seamlessly to how they think.
  (Thelen, 1995, p. 71)
• ... thinking grounded in and inseparable from
  bodily action. (Thelen, 1995, p. 71, our
  italics)

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The act of embodying 1

• May be described as the adaptation to new tools
  or environments through active use or training,
  where the object are incorporated into the bodily
  and perceptual framework of the user.
• Once the stick has become a familiar instrument,
  the world of feelable things recedes and now
  begins, not at the outer sking of the hand, but
  at the end of the stick. ... the stick is no
  longer an object perceived by the blind man, but
  an instrument with which he perceives. It is a
  bodily auxiliary, and extention of the bodily
  synthesis. (Merleau-Ponty, 1962, pp. 175-176)

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The act of embodying 2

• The blind mans stick-example show that the
  body does not end at the skin, but rather can
  extend out into the environment through with the
  aid of the tool.
• When the tool/technology is embodied, the user
  acts directly on the task.
• The tool becomes nonexistent as an object, and
  does not hinder the activity.
• May be said to describe an aspect of what is
  called automated activity (but this term is
  problematic as it is related to a set of
  different ontological statements!)

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The act of embodying 3

• Embodying is a continuous process, similar to
  perceptual adaptation.
• It involves a change in the perception of both
  self and the environment.
• Some technologies are difficult to use/learn,
  -they are not as easily embodied.
• NOTE Embodying is NOT the same as learning to
  use!!

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The act of embodying 4 Distributed Cognition

• Cognition and problem solving also extends
  outside the boundaries of the skull, similarly to
  the extention of the body.
• The mental activites of humans are distributed
  across an ecological context.
• Called distributed cognition
• Are spatially and temporally distributed (Happen
  in space, over time)
• We use external props to guide problem solving,
  (e.g. maps and compass to guide navigation by
  high-speed boat)

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Distributed cognition (1)

• Example of a text from the syllabus
• The important characteristics of the text are
  similar to the other parts
• However, this text can be altered to better fit
  with the reader (or operator)

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Distributed cognition (2)

• Same text as previous page, but now altered to
  fit the reader
• Use of pen and paper is one of the most common
  aids for problem solving
• Structuring of the environment to ease problem
  solving
• This page is as much a part of human cognition as
  thinking/visualizing/ talking
• In principle similar to navigation with maps and
  compass.

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Embodiment and Design 1

• Humans are primarily good at pattern recognition
  formation, and at coordinating bodily
  movements.
• Humans are generally poor at logical reasoning
  and planning
• The main elements that cognitive psychology have
  studied ?
• Humans improve their mental computational power
  by structuring their environment, thereby
  allowing more complex problem solving.

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Embodiment and design 2

• Effective interfaces should have a meaningful and
  functional relationship between controls and
  effects.
• Embodied Interfaces should (in addition) allow
  for
• A Possibility to distibute problem solving
  activities by restructuring the working space
• Physical interaction with the interface
• Alteration of the interface to fit changing task
  demands

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Ecological Interaction Properties

• Describes physical/phenomenal characteristics of
  interfaces which affects the directness of the
  interface
• Directness may be translated as the degree of
  problemsolving necessary to effectively interact
  with an interface
• Direct interaction may be described as natural
  fluent interaction based on existing human
  sensori-motor qualities
• Indirect interaction are equivalent with explicit
  abstract reasoning and/or problem solving
• Human-Technology Interaction moves along the
  direct-indirect continuum all the time.
• There may be other and/or better description of
  properties!

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EIP 2

• The Paper by Hoff et al is mainly related to the
  phenomenal qualities of interfaces.
• Physical characteristics related to performance
  are also possible to describe.
• It is to some degrees possible to predict
  performance from physical characteristics

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EIP Embodiment Knowledge in the World

• Affordances Action-possibilies in the
  environment
• Related to the individual actor/observer
• Neither subjective nor objective but both
• Directly meaningful for an actor
• Can be perceived directly, are specified by the
  ambient energy radiated from the environment

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ReferencesClark, A. (1997). Being There
Putting Brain, Body, and World Together Again.
Cambridge, Mass The MIT Press.Clark, A.
(1999). An embodied cognitive science? Trends in
Cognitive Sciences, 3(9), 345-351Gibson, J. J.
(1979). The Ecological Approach to Visual
Perception. Boston Houghton Mifflin.Heidegger,
M. (1927/1962). Being and Time (Trans. J.
Macquarrie E. Robinson). Oxford, UK Blackwell
PublishersHirose, N. (2002). An ecological
approach to embodiment and cognition. Cognitive
Systems Research, 3, 289-299.Hoff, T.,
Øritsland, T.A. and Bjørkli, C.A. (2002)
Exploring the Embodied-Mind Approach to User
Experience. Proceedings of NordiCHI Conference,
p.19-23 Hutchins, E. (1995). Cognition in the
Wild. Cambridge, Mass. The MIT PressLakoff, G.
Johnson, M. (1999). Philosophy in The Flesh
The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western
Thought. New York, NY Basic Books.Merleau-
Ponty, M. (1962). Phenomenology of Perception.
(trans. Colin Smith). London, UK
Routledge.Thelen, E. (1995). Time-scale
dynamics and the Development of an Embodied
Cognition. In R. F. Port T. Van Gelder (eds.)
Mind As Motion Exploration in the Dynamics of
Cognition. (pp. 69-100). Cambridge, Mass The MIT
Press