Week 2: Lindblom embodiment article

Question 1

What are ‘theory’ theories of behavior?

Answer 1

interpreting and predicting behavior of others is based on brain structures and functioning.

Question 2

What are ‘simulation theories’ of behavior?

Answer 2

Interpreting and predicting behavior of others is based on the body and sensomotor processes

Question 3

What is social embodiment?

Answer 3

bodily states such as posture and facial expressions during social interaction that have an important role in processing social information

Question 4

What are the 4 general social embodiment effects found in social psychological research?

Answer 4

1. perceived social stimuli produce both cognitive and bodily states
2. perceiving bodily states in other people results in bodily mimicry
3. Own bodily states proceed affective states
4. The compatibility of bodily states and cognitive states adjusts performance ffectiveness

Question 5

What can be said about embodiment effects on attitudes (formation)

Answer 5

Postures and motor activities are associated with a positive or negative preferences against objects. Approach activities lead to liking and avoidance activities lead to disliking

Question 6

What can be said about embodiment effects on social perception?

Answer 6

1. If people are primed with for example words like ‘elderly’ they walk away slower after an experiment

Question 7

What can be said about embodiment effects on emotions?

Answer 7

1. posture and smiling leads towards pleasant memories

Question 8

What is the difference between online and offline appearances of embodiment?

Answer 8

online = interacting with an actual social object
offline = representing social objects in the mind such as recalling a nice memory

Question 9

How does embodiment serve as the core of social representation? (2)

Answer 9

1. Storage of modality-specific states
2. Partial reenactment of these states at a later occasion

Question 10

What is the perceptual symbol systems theory?

Answer 10

Situational component –> embodiment –> situated conceptualization
Match between current and previous bodily state helps to understand a situation

Question 11

What is the phenomenological explanation/ evidence for embodiment? (1)

Answer 11

Humans are social beings in nature
Brain must have evolved to handle interaction

Question 12

What are the 2 forms of neurological evidence for embodiment

Answer 12

1. The existence of mirror neurons
2. Simulation theories

Question 13

How does empathy work? (3)

Answer 13

1. Put oneself in another person’s metal state
2. Leads to recognition
3. Elicits expression in the form of empathy

Question 14

What are emulation or simulation theories of embodiment?

Answer 14

Neural structures responsible for action or perception are also used in the various cognitive tasks (mirror neurons)

Question 15

In what processes is simulation expected to play a role? (2)

Answer 15

1. Action recognition
2. Empathy and language understanding

Question 16

Tell something about Gallese and his shared manifold of intersubjectivity (4)

Answer 16

All interpersonal relations are dependent of a shared manifold space, characterized by routines of embodied simulations
2. Simulation is used for modeling behavior
3. Simulation is not limited to motor systems of the brain because it is a representation of reality not reality in itself
4. Simulation is automatic, unconscious and pre-reflexive

Question 17

According to Gallese, what does the manifold of intersubjectivity mean?

Answer 17

we don’t experience others like we experience ourselves. The goal of embodied simulation is to shape the interaction between an individual and the environment, thus shaping interpersonal relationships

Question 18

What is the view of Gallagher regarding simulation?

Answer 18

Simulatino is an embodied practice
Communication does not always involve higher processing but instead simulation and perception are the same process (intersubjective perception)
Simulation is not separate from perception

Question 19

Why, according to Gallagher, is simulation secundair to perception?

Answer 19

To understand and interpret others, people rarely search outside of current embodied expressive actions.
First people simulate and then they percept

Question 20

What is the difference in view between Gallese and Gallagher?

Answer 20

1. Gallese = we simulate in every social interaction both online and offline
2. Gallagher = only complex situations cause or require simulation and there is no additional step in a mental simulation

Difference is; if simulation is required and automated or if simulation is almost never necessary except in weird cases

Question 21

What is intersubjective perception?

Answer 21

simulation and perceiving are the same process

Question 22

Where in the brain are mirror neurons located?

Answer 22

1. The premotor cortex
2. Inferior parietal lobe

Question 23

What are 3 functions of mirror neurons?

Answer 23

(1) Recognizing an action
(2) Repetition of actions
(3) Initiate learning

Question 24

What were the 3 important contributions of Efron towards the study of sign language?

Answer 24

(1) develop methods to analyze body and sign language
(2) Provide a classification framework for non-verbal behavior
(3) Importance of culture influence in forming signs or bodily movement

Question 25

What do Iverson and Thelen state about the relation between language and movement, is it true and why yes or no? (3)

Answer 25

1. language and movement are strongly related
2. True because: same brain mechanisms for some language and motor functions
3. People losing some language function also lose some movement

Question 26

Hand and mouth movement are not separate systems. What is the proof of this?

Answer 26

Babinski reflex in newborn babies

Question 27

What are the 4 fundamental functions of the body in social interactions?

Answer 27

1. The body functions as a social resonance mechanism (bodily movements and social thinking interact
2. The body functions as a mend and end in social interaction
3. Embodied actions/experiences function as a helping hand ins hoping, expressing and sharing thoughts
4. The body functions as a representational device