"Mind over matter? How your body does your thinking": Another article about embodied cognition research

As those of you who read this blog may recall, I sometimes post reminders that we "know" with more than just our minds and brains. Conflict does not just happen between brains. (See my post We think with more than just our minds: Conflict reaches clear down to our toes.)

Here's another article with that reminder from New Scientist. From "Mind over matter? How your body does your thinking":

"I THINK therefore I am," said Descartes. Perhaps he should have added: "I act, therefore I think."

Our ability to think has long been considered central to what makes us human. Now research suggests that our bodies and their relationship with the environment govern even our most 

abstract thoughts. This includes thinking up random numbers or deciding whether to recount positive or negative experiences.

"Advocates of traditional accounts of cognition would be surprised," says Tobias Loetscher at the University of Melbourne in Parkville, Australia. "They generally consider human reasoning to involve abstract cognitive processes devoid of any connection to body or space."

Until recently, the assumption has been that our bodies contribute only to our most basic interactions with the environment, namely sensory and motor processes. The new results suggest that our bodies are also exploited to produce abstract thought, and that even seemingly inconsequential activities have the power to influence our thinking.

Click to read the rest.

Note: I also post about embodied cognition at my blog idealawg. Here are some of the recent posts:

• Interview with Joshua Ackerman re embodied cognition and the influence of metaphor: Listen to what he says about how environment affects negotiations
• Is LEGO® dispute resolution the next step for conflict professionals? Is above-the-neck mediation old-fashioned?
• Embodied cognition: Your body's processing (Be careful about what you and your body hear)
• "To remember the good times, reach for the sky": Memories and movement

Comments

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Yes, we are bad decision makers when we allow inconsequential information to frame our thoughts.

But, if we wanted out of this trap what should we do?