Embodied Perspectives on Behavioral Cognitive Enhancement

Abstract

Recent debates about strategies to enhance human cognition concerned mostly pharmacological, environmental, and genetic factors, as well as computerized cognitive training paradigms targeting healthy populations. We offer a new perspective on behavioral cognitive enhancement, arguing that embodied cognition represents a productive framework to explain results and to inform new studies aimed at enhancing cognition. Understanding cognitive mechanisms and their time course through an embodied perspective contributes to our knowledge of brain functioning and its potential. We review two domains: (a) physical exercise and (b) embodied learning. For each domain, we summarize experimental evidence according to the level of embodiment of the knowledge representations targeted by interventions (i.e., situatedness, embodiment proper, grounding). Future research should integrate embodiment and cognitive enhancement in training paradigms focused on joint cognitive and physical tasks.