How Radical Is Embodied Creativity? Implications of 4E Approaches for Creativity Research and Teaching.

Laura H Malinin

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02372

Abstract

Modern ideas of embodiment have been influential in cognitive science for the past several decades, yet there is minimal evidence of embodied cognition approaches in creativity research or pedagogical practices for teaching creativity skills. With creativity research in crisis due to conceptual, methodological, and theoretical issues, radical embodied cognitive science (RECS) may offer a framework to move the field forward. This conceptual analysis examines the current state of creativity research from the 4E (embodied, embedded, enactive, and extended) cognition and RECS perspectives. Two streams are critiqued for their potential to further knowledge about the development of creative expertise and inform educational practices. Promising directions for future research is discussed, including ways dynamical systems approaches, such as those used in improvisational and musical creativity, might yield new insights about how people develop creative expertise and help address the “higher order thinking” criticisms of RECS.

Highlights

Modern ideas of embodiment can be traced back several decades (Brooks, 1991; Varela et al, 1991; Lakoff and Johnson, 1999), and the notion that cognition may be “radically” embodied has been at the forefront of cognitive science debate since the early 21st century (Thompson and Varela, 2001; Chemero, 2009)
Radical embodied cognitive science (RECS) proposes that cognition is for action, and is best understood in terms of person-environment dynamics, an alternative to computational cognition (CC) models describing rule-based information processing and manipulation of abstract mental representations (Chemero, 2009, pp. 28–44)
This paper examines the current state of creativity research with respect to embodiment theories in order

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Modern ideas of embodiment can be traced back several decades (Brooks, 1991; Varela et al, 1991; Lakoff and Johnson, 1999), and the notion that cognition may be “radically” embodied has been at the forefront of cognitive science debate since the early 21st century (Thompson and Varela, 2001; Chemero, 2009). The concept of RECS is often described in terms of 4E (embodied, embedded, enactive, extended) cognition, explaining ways the mind is not solely located in the brain and involves the body and the body’s situation in the environment (Menary, 2010b; Newen et al, 2018). Environment will be used as an umbrella term to describe both human-specific environment (habitat) and actor-specific environment (umwelt) How people believe their bodies, artifacts, and environments shape creative processes is evident in personal accounts of creativity throughout history (Malinin, 2016), yet embodied creativity is a newly emerging research area, generally organized into two streams. Divergent and convergent thinking are considered here as sub-processes, occurring throughout problem finding, generation/elaboration, and implementation

Embodied Metaphorical Creativity

Squeezing soft ball