The Temporality of Situated Cognition.

David H V Vogel,Mathis Jording,Christian Kupke,Kai Vogeley

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.546212

Abstract

Situated cognition embeds perceptions, thoughts, and behavior within the contextual framework of so-called “4E cognition” understanding cognition to be embodied, enactive, extended, and embedded. Whereas this definition is primarily based on the spatial properties of a situation, it neglects a fundamental constituent: the cognitive situation as enduring. On a subpersonal level, situated cognition requires the integration of information processing within a minimal temporal extension generating the basic building blocks of perception and action (“microlayer” of time). On a personal level, lived situations and experienced narratives leading to our biography can be defined by their broader temporal horizons (“macrolayer” of time). The macrolayer of time is based on and emerges from information processing on the microlayer of time. Whereas the constraints on the microlayer are primarily defined by the integrity of neurobiological processes within an individual cognitive system, the temporal horizons and subsequently the situational context on the macrolayer are defined by the complex affordances of a situation on a personal or interpersonal level. On both time layers, cognition can be defined as a continuous dynamic process, reflecting the transition from one situated state to another. Taken together, the events forming the delimiting horizons of these situations correspond to the temporal structure of the cognitive process along which it continuously proceeds. The dynamic driving and enabling this transition from state to state is synonymous with the inherent flow of time. Just as the layers of time, flow and structure, are inseparably connected. The integration of temporal flow and temporal structure into the continuous dynamic process constitutes the enduring situatedness of cognition. By providing everyday examples and examples from psychopathology, we highlight the benefits of understanding cognitive processes as part of enduring situations.

Highlights

The proposal of situated cognition views cognitive processes as inherently located within a contextual framework comprising of a bodily (embodied), affording (enacted), physical (extended), and sociocultural (embedded) environment, referred to as 4E cognition (Newen et al, 2018; Overmann and Malafouris, 2018)
The proposal of situated cognition views cognitive processes as inherently located within a contextual framework comprising of a bodily, affording, physical, and sociocultural environment, referred to as 4E cognition (Newen et al, 2018; Overmann and Malafouris, 2018)
Cognition is subsequently located in a purely spatial situs cogitans. This site of thought can be reidentified as the spatial relationships around or within it, or as the contents of the space surrounding and included in the situs cogitans. This reduction theoretically constrains all four aspects of situated cognition: embodiment is reduced to the concept of a cognitive process as placed in a location, which coincidentally is a body or a brain; enaction is minimized to a simple nonrecurring computation of inputs and outputs; extendedness refers to a merely spatial distribution of cognitive subfunctions and not explicitly to temporal extension; embeddedness may correspond to geometric relationships between the cognizer and their surroundings

Summary

Introduction

The proposal of situated cognition views cognitive processes as inherently located within a contextual framework comprising of a bodily (embodied), affording (enacted), physical (extended), and sociocultural (embedded) environment, referred to as 4E cognition (Newen et al, 2018; Overmann and Malafouris, 2018). We will lay out that any (cognitive) act must by default be conceptualized as extended, enacted, embodied, and embedded in space and needs to be considered as enduring over time, necessitating temporality.

Results

Conclusion