Always a little skeptical of the "newest in psychology," I came across this article on the front page of the Boston Globe's Ideas section on Sunday: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/01/13/dont_just_stand_there_think/
It's about "embodied cognition" and claims that "a growing body of new research suggests" that physical movement is linked to cognition in a variety of ways. For example, "...a study...found that subjcts (all non-Chinese speakers) shown a series of Chinese ideographs while either pushing down or pulling up on a table in front of them will say they prefer the ideographs they saw when pulling upward over the ones they saw while pushing downward." An interesting thought, but I can't help but wonder if it's just the newest fad. (Should I be jumping up and down while writing that?) A search of the literature turned up 92 articles on "embodied cognition." Many seemed a bit obscure, such as: An embodied cognitive analysis of social situativity.<http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/viewarticle?data=dGJyMPPp44rp2%2fdV0%2bnjisfk5Ie44ud%2b4%2bLthuWk63nn5Kx95uXxjL6nrUmypbBIrq6eSa6wsk%2b4p684v8OkjPDX7Ivf2fKB7eTnfLunr0%2b3qq5ItKy2PurX7H%2b72%2bw%2b4ti7iPHv5j7y1%2bVVv8SkeeyzsEiuq6tRt6avTaumr0ik3O2K69fyVeTr6oTy2%2faM&hid=15> Clark, Kevin Michael; Dissertation Abstracts International Section A: Humanities and Social Sciences, Vol 66(2-A), 2005. pp. 486. And At the root of embodied cognition: Cognitive science meets neurophysiology.<http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/viewarticle?data=dGJyMPPp44rp2%2fdV0%2bnjisfk5Ie44ud%2b4%2bLthuWk63nn5Kx95uXxjL6nrUmypbBIrq6eSa6wsk%2b4p684v8OkjPDX7Ivf2fKB7eTnfLunr0%2b3qq5ItKy2PurX7H%2b72%2bw%2b4ti7iPHv5j7y1%2bVVv8SkeeyzsEiuqqtJt6uvUKumr0qk3O2K69fyVeTr6oTy2%2faM&hid=15> Garbarini, Francesca; Adenzato, Mauro; Brain and *Cognition*, Vol 56(1), Oct 2004. pp. 100-106. [Journal Article] There were also several that were skeptical of the whole thing. None of the textbooks I use for Human Development, Child Psychology or Social Psychology include the concept, but I don't teach a brain or cognition course, so perhaps they do include this. Anybody have any insight into this topic? Beth Benoit Granite State College Plymouth State University New Hampshire --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
