Representation and Specification in the Dynamics of Cognition

Port and van Gelder's edited volume Mind as Motion (see record 1995-98834-000) presents evidence to bolster the view that the theory of nonlinear dynamics provides one of the most powerful tools thus far developed for capturing some of the central phenomena in experimental and clinical psychology. The 18 chapters present theory and novel applications that revolve around the key issue of exactly what kind of a mental representation is sufficient to support epistemic contact with, or knowledge of, the world. The answers given emphasize the need to grapple with embodied cognition--that is, the relation that underlies organism-environment interaction and how the mechanism underlying such a relation can be construed in dynamical terms. This is a radical departure for the majority of cognitive psychology research to the extent that the representational properties of mental states are considered to be a function, not only of brain states, but of brain-environment and body-environment relations. The dynamical hypothesis, as presented by the editors, is that "Natural cognitive mental states are a function of the dynamics that describe organism-environment relations". Because the focus of the book is dynamics as applied to psychology, the editors immediately propose that the established symbolic information-processing approach to mind has certain critical shortcomings, a central issue being an inability to incorporate temporal events into the representational framework in a noncontrived and nonartifactual manner. This book indicates the potential for cognitive science to progress through further appreciation of the deep similarities rather than differences existing between its constitutive fields. That is, when translated into the appropriate language of informational dynamics, common principles appear. Mind as Motion significantly advances this possibility. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)