Enaction: Embodied Cognition

Cognition depends on having a body with sensorimotor capacities, which are embedded in broader biological, psychological, and cultural contexts. Sensory and motor processes are fundamentally inseparable in lived cognition and have evolved together. The enactive approach holds that perception consists of perceptually guided action and that cognitive structures emerge from recurrent sensorimotor patterns enabling such guidance.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This chapter explains embodied action. The term embodied highlights two points: first, that cognition depends upon the kinds of experience that come from having a body with various sensorimotor capacities, and second, that these individual sensorimotor capacities are themselves embedded in a more encompassing biological, psychological, and cultural context. The term action emphasizes that sensory and motor processes, perception and action, are fundamentally inseparable in lived cognition. Indeed, the two are not merely contingently linked in individuals; they have also evolved together. The chapter then discusses enaction. In a nutshell, the enactive approach consists of two points: (1) perception consists in perceptually guided action and (2) cognitive structures emerge from the recurrent sensorimotor patterns that enable action to be perceptually guided.