Embodiment (also referred to as Embodied
Perception or Embodied Cognition) is the theory that
our perception, interpretation, and representation of
objects in our environment is grounded in our ability to
act on these objects. The traditional (nonembodied)
view is that perception and cognition are completely
separable from action. That is, our perception and
understanding of the environment around us is determined
by the information coming in from our senses
and top-down processes, like memory used to interpret
this information. Neural mechanisms involved in the
generation and control of actions are not engaged until
after this initial perceptual and cognitive processing
occurs. The embodied viewpoint, which has its roots in
Gibson’s ecological approach (1979), refutes this distinction
between perception/cognition and action and
instead argues that the capacity to act directly shapes
how we perceive and interpret our environment.
In terms of perception, embodied theory proposes that
the perception of object characteristics like the size and
speed of a moving ball should be scaled by our ability
to act on the object and not solely determined by the
object’s physical characteristics (i.e., its actual physical
size). This has typically been demonstrated in two different
ways. First, it has been shown that the perception
of object characteristics can vary systematically as a
function of the skill level and action capability of the
perceiver. Examples include baseballs being perceived
as larger and moving more slowly for more-skilled batters
and hills being perceived as steeper for people that
are heavier or are carrying a backpack. Second, for performers
of a given skill level, it has been demonstrated
that changing task difficulty can change the perception
of object characteristics. Examples include golf holes
being perceived as smaller when putting from a larger
distance and baseballs perceived as moving faster when
the batter is given a more difficult directional hitting
task. Consistent with embodied theory, when the capacity
to act is higher (either due to greater ability or lower
task difficulty), perceptual variables have values associated
with affording greater opportunity for successful
action.In terms of cognition, embodied theory proposes that
our ability to comprehend, make judgments about, and
generate predictions related to objects in the environment
should be related to our motor skill repertoire.
This has been demonstrated in two primary ways. First,
when observing someone else performing an action, it
has been shown that individuals who are skilled in the
same action themselves have greater brain activity
while observing, can better discriminate between different
types of movements, and can more accurately predict
what the outcome of the action will be. Second, it
has been demonstrated that the comprehension of language
can be influenced by the actions implied by the
text being read or words one hears spoken. For example,
when asked to make a movement in response to the
sentence “open the window,” response time will be faster
if it involves an upward movement as opposed to a
downward one. In sum, work in this area has shown
that neural systems that subserve action seem to be
engaged during cognitive tasks (even those that seemingly
involve no intention to act) and that the degree to
which these occurs depends on an individual’s level of
motor skill.
Embodied theory is not without its detractors, as it
has been argued that the perceptual and cognitive
effects related to action can alternatively be explained
by response biases due
