Talk @ Royal Society - Edinburgh 9-10th June 2011

8/6/2019 Talk @ Royal Society - Edinburgh 9-10th June 2011

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Mirko [email protected]

University of Edinburgh

Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science, Sydney

Bodies of Thought: Fleshy Subjects,Embodied Minds, and Human Natures.June 9-10th, Edinburgh


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EMT is a view about thephysical mechanisms ofmind and cognition that

envisions the emergenceof extended cognitivesystems through the

coupled combinations ofexternally located

resources, bodilymanipulations and in-the-head processing


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Parity Based Consistently relies onFunctionalism [Wheeler and Clark]

Complementarity Based Stresses theComplementary contribution of Inner andOuter [Sutton, Menary, Rowlands, Clark]


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Complementaritydefences of EMT

stress the differentcontributions made byinternal and externally

located items andargue that it isprecisely these

differences that allow

for the environment toplay a transformativerole in cognition


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The Second Wave inAction

I defend aComplementarityversion of EMTand develop anargument for itbased on theenmeshing of

organisms and

their cognitivedevelopmentalniches.


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1. Present a series of cases involvingneural and cognitive development inwhich this enmeshing is realised via

brains plasticity

2. Move on to niche constructionand show how we get something

like complementarity out ofdevelopmental niches

IDEA Connect 1. and 2. throughEcological inheritance to be

understood in a developmental context

GOALDevelopmentalargument for Complementarity

from a phylogenetic standpoint

Whats the Plan?


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Pointing Out the Enemy

Enemies are those views that

describe functional organisation as

pre-specified and our nature as fixedand constrained

Integrated Model Cosmides/ToobyCulture is based on a universalhuman nature and is constrained by it

Brain is a collection of highly

modular, domain-specific processors


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NO! - Functional Specialisation isExperience-Dependent

Pascual-Leone and Hamilton (2001) -Study on blindfolded subjects

Plasticity isnt confined to

childhood but persists intoadulthood!

After a prolonged period ofsensory deprivation, visualcortex tends to take on new

functions


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Cognitive Functions are Experience-Dependent too

It narrows because brain functionsget specialised in accordance withsocio-cultural activities and specific

environmental stimulation

Studies on language acquisition inchildren show that the capacity to

distinguish sounds narrows with age

The on-board neural machinerycomes to be dovetailed to fit with theparticular socio-cultural environment

in which our brains grow


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The loss of a sensory modality

induces an invasion of thedeprived cortical area by inputsoriginating from other modalities

SSDs exploit the plasticity of our

brains and with training supply anovel perceptual modality that

compensates for loss or impairedsensory channel

This transform our cognitiveskills and give rise to

augmented processes of deepbio-technological symbiosis


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Cognitive Development via BrainPlasticity

The dovetailing of neural circuitrywith the external environmentmoulds our cognitive functions

External structures becomecomplementary parts of our

cognitive repertoire

Our brains learn to treat externalstructures as reliableresources,that shape the kinds of on boardcognitive routines they support


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The reliance on external structuresleads us straight to Niche

Construction

Niche Construction and EcologicalInheritance

CORE IDEA - organisms can alter

their environments in ways thatmay sometimes change their

fitness landscape

Animals engineer the selectiveenvironments of the constructors but

also alter the environs of theconstructors descendants


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Genetic VS Ecological Inheritance

[Downstream EpistemicEngineering]

Model that accounts for brainneural specialisation without theinvolvement of excessive pre-

determination

Neuroconstructivist Perspectiveand Emergent Modularity

Wheeler and Clark attack Strong

Instructionism and Modularity


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Culture and Biology

Downstream emphasises

the importance of nicheconstruction for human

evolution & development

Analogy between

cultural transmission ofknowledge and physical

niche construction

The latter generates selection impacting feedback cycles inevolutionary time, the former changes the fitness landscape

for individual lifetime learning


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Wheeler & Clark are right tocriticise modularity they are rightto emphasise the analogy between

culture and biology too

.(With a Concern)!

I propose to resituate ecologicalinheritance from an evolutionary to

a developmental context

However, there is perhaps a morepowerful context in which one can

understand this bond


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Parity in the context of developmentLife Cycle is the unit of evolution

Evolution is understood as a changein the spectrum of developmental

resources

Biological structure takes theform of soft constraints

Interactive Construction andCo-evolution


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Ecological Inheritance in Development

(NOT!) Genetic + EcologicalInheritance (BUT) Extended

Inheritance

Extended or Exogenetic

Inheritance of developmentalresources

Necessary genetic resources arecomplemented by equally necessaryand reliably reproduced epigenetic,bodily, social, ecological, epistemic

and symbolic resources fordevelopment [Stotz (2010)]


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BENEFICIAL MOVE for both biologyand the cognitive sciences

The developmental approach thusconceptualises the niche as part of the

developmental system

From DST to Ontogenetic NicheConstruction

The developmental niche is the set of(complex) legacies inherited by offspringas necessary developmental resources


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Ontogenetic niche constructionmakes the transmission of crucial

information more reliable

Because learning processes areinvolved in the development

Reliable Info and Learning

Extended inheritances areinherited, but they are also learnedvia behavioural and developmental

plasticity


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Genetic and Exo-geneticfactors interact to modify the

life cycle of the organism.

Development thus changes thedynamics of the cognitive system

in a way that opens up newcognitive possibilities

Ontogenetic niche grounds nature indevelopment and development in

mechanisms of exo-geneticinheritance


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Biology and Culture are not

separate much lessantagonistic

They are rather instrumental fororganisms to achieve biological

fitness in the long run

Our Nature is defined through

Development! It is out of this multi-layered process that the capacities

of living beings emerge

New Understanding of Human Nature

Culture makeshumans as much as

the reverse!


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"The accepted view that mentalfunctioning is essentially an

intracerebral process, which canonly be secondarily assisted oramplified by the various artificialdevices which that process has

enabled man to invent, appears tobe quite wrong [T]he humanbrain is fully dependent uponcultural resources for its very

operation; and those resources are,

consequently, not adjuncts to, butconstituents of, mental activity"

[Clifford Geertz, The Growth ofCulture and the Evolution of Mind]

A Revival of the SSS Model(?)


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Karola Stotz

University of Sydney

Julian KiversteinILLC Amsterdam Andy Bowie Clark

University of Edinburgh

John SuttonMACCS Sydney


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.Once we see how our brains aresculpted and nurtured to work inpartnership with our culturalsurroundings, this substantially

weakens the case for thinking ofthe brain of a single individual asthe container of the mind

[Kiverstein and Farina (2011a)]

Documents

Talk @ Royal Society - Edinburgh 9-10th June 2011