Talk @ Royal Society - Edinburgh 9-10th June 2011
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Transcript of Talk @ Royal Society - Edinburgh 9-10th June 2011
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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)]