An encounter between Attachment Theory and 4e Cognition

A number of research questions arise from an encounter between the elements of 4e cognition and Attachment Theory. These include: (1) whether the Attachment Theory concept of Internal Working Models should be understood in terms of analogue representations more in line with embodied cognition, in addition to traditional cognitivist representations like linguistically mediated narrative measures of attachment meaning?; (2) are infant-carer dyads best thought of as environments of contextual embedding for infant cognition or as an arrangement where the carer can actually extend the infant mind?; and (3) are attachment phenomena best thought of in traditional representational terms or should the attachment control system be reframed in enactive terms where traditional cognitivist representations are: (3i) substituted for sensorimotor skill-focused mediating representations, (3ii) viewed as arising from autopoietic living organism and/or (3iii) mostly composed from the non-contentful mechanisms of basic minds?; A theme that cross-cuts these research questions is how representations for capturing meaning, and structures for adaptive control, are both required to explain the full range of behaviour of interest to Attachment Theory researchers. Implications are considered for future empirical and computational modelling research, and clinical interventions.