One of the most common questions in today’s cognitive studies is the one regarding embodied cognition. The answer to this question draws our attention to many factors, including bodily actions, which also work to embody cognition. With this in mind, enactivism is included in discussions of embodiment. In the current issue we present texts in which a focus on enactivism itself is the leading topic.

This paper presents a research agenda underlying a PhD proposal on embodied software agents. The research aims to demonstrate that it is possible, for embodied software agents, to develop first-person meanings for environmental perturbations. According to the proposed approach, first-person meanings will be created through the agent centrifugal development. We argue that centrifugally developed...

Citation: Moore K and Cromby J (2016) Editorial: How Best to " Go On " ? Prospects for a " Modern Synthesis " in the Sciences of Mind. For some time, conceptual unity in psychology has been seen as both a scientific " holy grail " and a feared hegemonic project—see, for example Observer (1982), Kantor (1984), and Dixon (1983). This may be because a focus on integration, perhaps paradoxically, m...

Recent years have seen the emergence of a new interdisciplinary field called embodied or enactive cognitive science. Whereas traditional representationalism rests on a fixed inside–outside distinction, the embodied cognition perspective views mind and brain as a biological system that is rooted in body experience and interaction with other individuals. Embodiment refers to both the embedding of...

The embodied simulation hypothesis of modality-specific areas activation influencing language processing has matured over time. However, whether the idea can be applied to broader aspects other than processing, such as memory remains investigated. In this study, we extend hypothesis, looking at effects motor in mind, specifically handedness, on long-term retrieval. To test our introduce two lis...

The current paper explores some of the cognitive abilities of an embodied agent based on the DUAL/AMBR architecture. The model has been extended with several capabilities like continuous operation and learning based on encoding of episodes and general knowledge. A new mechanism of analogical transfer has been implemented and demonstrated on a simulated interaction with a user. A focus of intere...

Does a facial expression convey privileged information about a person’s mental state or is it a communicative act, divorced from “true” beliefs, desires and intentions? This question is often cast as a dichotomy between competing theoretical perspectives. Theorists like Ekman argue for the primacy of emotion as a determinant of nonverbal behavior: emotions “leak” and only indirectly serve socia...

Introduction The main idea of this paper derives from the recent phenomenologically grounded archaeological conceptualisations of the body as a site of lived experience and embodied agency (Fowler 2002, 2003; Hamilakis et al. 2002; Knappett 2005, 2006; Thomas 2000). Adopting the perspective of the Material Engagement approach (Malafouris 2004, 2008a; Renfrew 2004; Malafouris and Renfrew in pres...