Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

The Symbolic Species Evolved pp 241–251Cite as

Levels of Immersion and Embodiment

On the Relation Between Different Types of Practice and the Acquisition of Language

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

Part of the book series: Biosemiotics ((BSEM,volume 6))

Abstract

Contemporary neuroscience seems to suggest that conceptual understanding as in reading and discourse at least in part is perceptually and sensory-somatically corroborated. In other words, conceptual knowledge seems to involve reenacting forms of perceptual experiences. However, in many aspects of life we do not have first hand experiences of the concepts we master to perfection. Who has ever had personal experiences with unicorns, the ice ages or Big Bang? In this chapter, I expand on the relation between symbol use as it applies to the linguistic exchange in professional communities and different levels of immersion in the associated practices to clarify the issue of levels of embodiment from a cognitive point of view.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   169.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD   219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Collins and Evans discuss the taxonomy of expertises, the natural or acquired facility in a specific activity. In this chapter focus is on the characteristics of the knowledge associated to particular expertises.

  2. 2.

    Physicists (like all specialists) are unique. Lumping them together is therefore bound to result in superficial and inaccurate characterizations. Naturally, some physicists have specialized in experimental designs; others in theoretical approaches.

  3. 3.

    To count as a genuine interactional expert, knowledge must be obtained away from the concrete context relevant to contributory experts. In reality such clear cut examples are rare. For the sake of argument, I have the serene form in mind.

  4. 4.

    Bear in mind though that according to the theory, the interactional expert does not contribute to the evolvement of physics as a science.

  5. 5.

    In the simple version; for example sensitisation and conditioning in Kandel’s Aplysia californica, a seahare, involves the linking of various external stimuli enabled by the phylogenetically determined, neural connections (Kandel, 2001).

References

  • Aziz-Zadeh, L., Wilson, S. M., Rizzolatti, G., & Iacoboni, M. (2006). Congruent embodied representations for visually presented actions and linguistic phrases describing actions. Current Biology, 16, 1818–1823.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Barsalou, L. W. (1999). Perceptual symbol systems. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 22, 577–660.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Barsalou, L. W. (2008). Grounded cognition. Annual Review of Psychology, 59, 617–645.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Barsalou, L. W., Simmons, W. K., Barbey, A. K., & Wilson, C. D. (2003). Grounding conceptual knowledge in modality-specific systems. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 7(2), 84–91.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bastiaansen, J. A. Thioux, C. J. M., & Keysers, C. (2009). Evidence for mirror systems in emotions. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 364, 2391–2404.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Berry, D. C., & Dienes, Z. (1993). Implicit learning. East Sussex: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Ltd.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boroditsky, L., & Ramscar, M. (2002). The roles of body and mind in abstract thought. Psychological Science, 13(2), 185–189.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Collins, H. (2004). Interactional expertise as a third kind of knowledge. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 3, 125–143.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Collins, H., & Evans, R. (2007). Rethinking expertise. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collins, H., Evans, R., Ribeiro, R., & Hall, M. (2006). Experiments with interactional expertise. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 37(a), 656–74.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Collins, H. M. & Evans, R. (2002). The third wave of science studies: Studies in expertise and experience. Social Studies of Science, 32, 235–296.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dreyfus, H., & Dreyfus, S. (1986). Mindover machine. New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glenberg, A. M. (2008). Embodiment for education. Handbook of cognitive science. In P. Calvo & T. Gomila (Eds.), An embodied approach (pp. 355–372). Amsterdam: Elsevier.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glenberg, A., Havas, M. D., Becker, R., & Rinck, R. (2005). Grounding language in bodily states: The case for emotion. In D. Pecher & R. A. Zwaan (Eds.), Grounding cognition (pp. 115–128), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Glenberg, A. M., & Kaschak, M. P. (2002). Grounding language in action. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 9(3), 558–565.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Glenberg, A. M., Sato, M., & Cattaneo, L. (2008). Use-induced motor plasticity affects the processing of abstract and concrete language. Current Biology, 18(7), 290–291.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goldstone, R. L. (1995). Effects of categorization on color perception. Psychological Science, 6(5), 298–304.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • González, J., Barros-Loscertales, A., Pulvermüller, F., Meseguer, V., Sanjuán, A., Belloch, V., et al. (2006). Reading cinnamon activates olfactory brain regions. NeuroImage, 32, 906–912.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Holt, L. E., & Beilock, S. L. (2006). Expertise and its embodiment: Examining the impact of sensorimotor skill expertise on the representation of action-related text. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 13(4), 694–701.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kahneman, D. (2002). Maps of bounded rationality: A perspective on intuitive judgment and choice (Nobel Prize Lecture). Les Prix Nobel. T. Frangsmyr. Stockholm, Aula Magna, Stockholm University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kandel, E. R. (2001). The molecular biology of memory storage: A dialogue between genes and synapses. Science, 294, 1030–1038.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Markman, A. B., & Brendl, C. M. (2005). Constraining theories of embodied cognition. Psychological Science, 16(1), 6–10.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Marques, J. F. (2006). Specialization and semantic organization: evidence for multiple semantics linked to sensory modalities. Memory and Cognition, 34(1), 60–67.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meteyard, L., & Vigliocco, G. (2008). The role of sensory and motor information in semantic representation: A review. In P. Calvo & T. Gomila (Eds.), Handbook of cognitive science. An embodied approach (pp. 293–312). Amsterdam: Elsevier.

    Google Scholar 

  • Myung, J.-y., Blumstein, S. E., & Sedivy, J. C. (2006). Playing on the typewriter, typing on the piano: Manipulation knowledge of objects. Cognition, 98, 223–243.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Newman, M. L., Pennebaker, J. W., Berry; D. S., & Richards, J. M. (2003). Lying words: Predicting deception from linguistic styles. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29(5), 665–675.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nishimura, T., Mikami, A., Suzuki, J., & Matsuzawa, T. (2003). Descent of the larynx in chimpanzee infants. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 100(12), 6930–6933.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Pecher, D., Zeelenberg, R., & Barsalou, L. W. (2003). Verifying different-modality properties for concepts producesswitching costs. Psychological Science, 14(2), 119–124.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Perani, D., Pauesu, E., Galles, N. S., Dupoux, E, Dehaene, S., Bettinardi, V., et al. (1998). The bilingual brain. Proficiency and age of acquisition of the second language. Brain, 121, 1841–1852.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pulvermüller, F. (2005). Brain mechanism linking language and action. Nature, 6, 576–582.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Raposo, A., Moss, H. E., Stamatakis, E. A., & Tyler, L. K. (2009). Modulation of motor and premotor cortices by actions, action words and action sentences. Neuropsychologia, 47, 388–396.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Reber, A. S. (1993). Implicit learning and tacit knowledge. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reber, A. S., Walkenfeld, F. F., & Hernstedt, R. (1991). Implicit and explicit learning: individual differences and IQ. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 17(5), 888–896.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ribeiro, R. (2007a). The role of interactional expertise in interpreting: the case of technology transfer in the steel industry. Studies In History and Philosophy of Science Part A, 38(4), 713–721.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ribeiro, R. (2007b). Knowledge transfer. Cardiff: Cardiff University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ross, B. H., Wang, R. F. Kramer, A. F. Simons, D. J., & Crowell, J. A. (2007). Action information from classification learning. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 14(3), 500–504.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schilhab, T. (2007a). Interactional expertise through the looking glass: a peek at mirro neurons. Studies In History and Philosophy of Science Part A, 38(4), 741–747.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schilhab, T. S. S. (2007b). Knowledge for real – On implicit and explicit representations and education. Scandinavian Journal of Education, 51(3), 223–238.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schilhab, T. S. S. (2011). Neural perspectives on ‘interactional expertise’: The plasticity of language. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 18(7–8), 99–116.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schilhab, T. S. S., & Gerlach, C. (2008a). Embodiment, corporeality and neuroscience. In T. Schilhab, M. Juelskjær, & T. Moser (Eds.) Learning bodies (pp. 19–43). København: Danmarks Pædagogiske Universitetsforlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schilhab, T. S. S., & Gerlach, C. (2008b). Connections in action – Bridging implicit and explicit domains. In J. Hoffmeyer (Ed.), A legacy for living systems (pp. 135–144). København: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Schilhab, T. S. S., Juelskjær, M., & Moser, T. (2008). Post Scriptum – On ‘Learning bodies’. In T. Schilhab, M. Juelskjær, & T. Moser (Eds.), Learning bodies (pp. 303–315). København: Danmarks Pædagogiske Universitetsforlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Selinger, E., Dreyfus, H., & Collins, H. M. (2007). Interactional expertise and embodiment. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A, 38(4), 722–740.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stadler, M. A., & Frensch, P. A. (Eds.). (1998). Handbook of implicit learning. Thaousand Oaks: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Steger, C. L., & Werker, J. F. (1997). Infants listen for more phonetic detail in speech perception than in word learning tasks. Nature, 388, 381–382.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Watkins, K. E., Strafella, A. P., & Paus, T. (2003). Seeing and hearing speech excites the motor system involved in speech production. Neuropsychologia, 41, 989–994.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, M. (2002). Six views on embodied cognition. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 9(4), 625–635.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zwaan, R. A., Stanfield, R. A., & Yaxley, R. H. (2002). Language comprehenders mentally represent the shapes of objects. Psychological science, 13(2), 168–171.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. GNOSIS Research Centre, Danish School of Education, University of Aarhus, 2400, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Theresa Schilhab

Authors
  1. Theresa Schilhab
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Theresa Schilhab .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Danish School of Education, University of Århus, Tuborgvej 164, København, DK-2400, Denmark

    Theresa Schilhab

  2. Jens Chr. Skous Vej 7, Aarhus C, 8000, Denmark

    Frederik Stjernfelt

  3. , Department of Anthropology, University of Berkeley, Kroeber Hall 329, Berkeley, 94720-3710, California, USA

    Terrence Deacon

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Schilhab, T. (2012). Levels of Immersion and Embodiment. In: Schilhab, T., Stjernfelt, F., Deacon, T. (eds) The Symbolic Species Evolved. Biosemiotics, vol 6. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2336-8_12

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation