Since its inception some fifty years ago, cognitive science has seen a number of sea changes. Perhaps the best known is the development of connectionist models of cognition as an alternative to classical, symbol-based approaches. A more recent - and increasingly influential - trend is that of dynamical-systems-based, ecologically oriented models of the mind. Researchers suggest that a full understanding of the mind will require systematic study of the dynamics of interaction between mind, body, and world. Some argue that this new orientation calls for a revolutionary new metaphysics of mind, according to which mental states and processes, and even persons, literally extend into the environment. This book is a guide to this movement in cognitive science. Each chapter tackles either a specific area of empirical research or specific sector of the conceptual foundation underlying this research.
Part I. Backdrop: 1. A short primer on situated cognition Philip Robbins and Murat Aydede; 2. Scientific antecedents of situated cognition William J. Clancey; 3. Philosophical antecedents of situated cognition Shaun Gallagher; Part II. Conceptual Foundations: 4. How to situate cognition: letting nature take its course Robert A. Wilson and Andy Clark; 5. Why the mind is still in the head Fred Adams and Kenneth Aizawa; 6. Innateness and the situated mind Robert Rupert; 7. Situated representation Mark Rowlands; 8. Dynamics, control, and cognition Chris Eliasmith; 9. Explanation: mechanism, modularity, and situated cognition William Bechtel; 10. Embedded rationality Ruth Millikan; Part III. Empirical Developments: 11. Situated perception and sensation in vision and other modalities: from an active to a sensorimotor account Erik Myin and Kevin O'Regan; 12. Spaces of thought Barbara Tversky; 13. Remembering John Sutton; 14. Situating concepts Lawrence W. Barsalou; 15. Problem-solving and situated cognition David Kirsh; 16. The dynamic interactions between situations and decisions Jerome R. Busemeyer, Ryan K. Jessup and Eric Dimperio; 17. Situating rationality: ecologically rational decision making with simple heuristics Henry Brighton and Peter M. Todd; 18. Situativity and learning R. Keith Sawyer and James G. Greeno; 19. Language in the brain, body, and world Rolf A. Zwaan and Michael P. Kaschak; 20. Language processing embodied and embedded Michael Spivey and Daniel Richardson; 21. Situated semantics Varol Akman; 22. Is consciousness embodied? Jesse J. Prinz; 23. Emotions in the wild: the situated perspective on emotion Paul Griffiths and Andrea Scarantino; 24. The social context of cognition Eliot R. Smith and Frederica R. Conrey; 25. Cognition for culture Michael Tomasello and Felix Warneken; 26. Neuroethology: from morphological computation to planning Malcolm A. MacIver.
