Role Of Embodiment Research Articles

Enhancement of perceived body ownership in virtual reality-based teleoperation may backfire in the execution of high-risk tasks

Guided by previous research on the role of embodiment in virtual environments, this study aimed to investigate the potential effects of using human-like (compared to robotic) virtual hands on work performances in the context of virtual reality (VR)-based teleoperation of high-risk machinery. A 2 × 2 mixed factorial design experiment (N = 74), with the virtual hand representation as a within-subjects factor (robotic vs. human-like virtual hands) and the risk of danger as a between-subjects factor (low vs. high), was conducted to examine the effects of virtual hand representations (i.e., human-likeness) on perceived body ownership (i.e., embodiment), risk perception, intention to work using the teleoperator, and work performance (i.e., the number of successful task completions). In addition, the moderating effects of the risk of danger on the relationship between perceived body ownership and risk perception were explored. Results showed that the enhancement of perceived body ownership in VR-based teleoperation, induced by the use of human-like hands, increased the risk perception and degraded workers’ task performances in the execution of high-risk tasks. Further implications of the findings were discussed.

A multi-sensory and embodied understanding of wine consumption

ABSTRACT This study investigates the multi-sensory responses experienced by consumers in consuming and evaluating wine, and further identifies the differences in wine consumption experiences by novice wine consumers versus those of wine experts. How those experiences are shaped by consumer levels of knowledge regarding wine, and are defined by emotion, memory, and responses to the aesthetic experience of wine consumption, are identified via a multi-year ethnographic study. Through interviews, observations, and wine tastings with novices and experts, the authors examine the role of embodiment in wine consumption, whose impact is lacking in extant literature. Embodiment processes in wine consumption can be understood at the conscious level using Merleau-Ponty’s [(1962). The phenomenology of perception (C. Smith, Trans.). Kegan Paul] concept of perception and virtual enactments. At the unconscious level, as the authors report, consumers and wineries alike use conceptual metaphors and conceptual blending to understand the wine consumption process. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of embodiment processes through the application of Merleau-Ponty’s theory of perceptions/virtual enactments, as well as through metaphor and conceptual integration analysis.

Embodiment in Irish Sign Language Passives

Taking a cognitive linguistic approach, this paper explores passive constructions in Irish Sign Language (ISL). Adopting Foley & Van Valin’s (1984) concept of ‘macroroles’, we introduce the prototypical passive construction in ISL, a construction that incorporates several elements including a shift in focus from the Actor to the Undergoer, the recruitment of body partitioning, the use of an empty locus for establishment of an unspecified actor/s, and potentially, a body lean which may be coupled with averted eyegaze. We explore the viewpoint shifts that this construction allows signers, which support the cognitive grammar emphasis on the importance of construal. We also introduce a related category of constructions which recruit the signer’s body as a surrogate for unspecified actors. Unlike the prototypical passive, these constructions are less complex in that they do not recruit body partitioning, body leans or averted eyegaze. However, they are interesting because they seem to demand inferential readings where the surrogate represents external actors or, metonymically, institutions. In particular, we discuss the use of the signer’s body to represent an unspecified Actor and consider the role of embodiment as a lynchpin for understanding how passives operate. We present examples from the Signs of Ireland corpus and from the European Commission funded Medisigns project to illustrate these constructions in ISL.

Bodies and persons: The politics of embodied encounters in asylum seeking

In this paper, we propose that there is a politics of encounters centered on the body at play in seeking asylum and refuge, and that it is critical to study how it unfolds from the point of view of both governing and agency. Building on existing work that looks at the role of embodiment in the political struggles of refugees, and leaning on Helmuth Plessner’s original thinking about social embodiment, we develop a theoretical understanding of this political dynamic, illustrating how it can help us make sense of power relations and forms of governance and (latent) resistance involved in it.

What is the effect of bodily illusions on corticomotoneuronal excitability? A systematic review.

BackgroundThis systematic review aimed to summarise and critically appraise the evidence for the effect of bodily illusions on corticomotoneuronal excitability.MethodsFive databases were searched, with two independent reviewers completing study inclusion, risk of bias, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) reporting quality, and data extraction. Included studies evaluated the effect of an illusion that altered perception of the body (and/or its movement) on excitability of motor circuitry in healthy, adult, human participants. Studies were required to: use TMS to measure excitability and/or inhibition; report quantitative outcomes (e.g., motor evoked potentials); compare the illusion to a control or active comparison condition; evaluate that an illusion had occurred (e.g., measured illusion strength/presence).ResultsOf 2,257 studies identified, 11 studies (14 experiments) were included, evaluating kinaesthetic illusions (n = 5), a rubber hand illusion (RHI) paradigm (n = 5), and a missing limb illusion (n = 1). Kinaesthetic illusions (induced via vision/tendon vibration) increased corticomotoneuronal excitability. Conflicting effects were found for traditional, visuotactile RHIs of a static hand. However, embodying a hand and then observing it move (“self-action”) resulted in decreased corticomotoneuronal excitability and increased silent period duration (a measure of Gamma-Aminobutynic acid [GABA]B-mediated intracortical inhibition in motor cortex), with the opposite occurring (increased excitability, decreased inhibition) when the fake hand was not embodied prior to observing movement (“other-action”). Visuomotor illusions manipulating agency had conflicting results, but in the lower risk study, illusory agency over movement resulted in a relative decrease in corticomotoneuronal excitability. Last, an illusion of a missing limb reduced corticomotoneuronal excitability.ConclusionWhile evidence for the effect of bodily illusions on corticomotoneuronal excitability was limited (only 14 experiments) and had a high risk of bias, kinaesthetic illusions and illusions of embodying a hand (and seeing it move), had consistent effects. Future investigations into the role of embodiment and the illusion strength on corticomotoneuronal excitability and inhibition are warranted.

Children as community planners: embodied activities, visual-spatial thinking, and a re-imagined community

ABSTRACT This qualitative research endeavor explored the role of embodiment as a pathway to visual-spatial thinking. The researchers relied on an interdisciplinary approach using geography and theater rooted in kinesthetic and empathetic embodied activities to facilitate visual-spatial thinking within the context of a community redevelopment project. The participants consisted of 14 elementary and middle school aged girls attending a Girls Inc. program within a low-income housing community. The researchers situated the findings using McCormack’s ([1998. Visual/Spatial Thinking: An Essential Element of Elementary School Science. Washington, DC: Council for Elementary School Science]; [2011. “Don’t Verbalize, Visualize!” NSTA WebNews Digest. Accessed June 15, 2016. http://www.nsta.org/publications/news/story.aspx?id=58298]) visual-spatial thinking typology and theories of embodiment. The findings revealed that the girls exhibited three types of visual-spatial thinking, which ranged from foundational to highly advanced ways of thinking about space, to include visual-spatial perception, memory, and creative thinking. The results also illustrate that embodied activities that engage sensorimotor functions through an interdisciplinary approach, can facilitate visual-spatial thinking.

Dowling, S.,Pontin, D. and Boyer, K. (eds). Social Experiences of Breastfeeding: Building bridges between research, policy and practice. Bristol: Policy Press. 2018. 280pp. £60.00 (hbk) ISBN: 978‐1447338499.

Dowling, S.,Pontin, D. and Boyer, K. (eds). Social Experiences of Breastfeeding: Building bridges between research, policy and practice. Bristol: Policy Press. 2018. 280pp. £60.00 (hbk) ISBN: 978‐1447338499.

Introduction: Interrogating the ‘everyday’ politics of emotions in international relations

The focus on the everyday in this Special Issue reveals different kinds of emotional practices, their political effects and their political contestation within both micro- and macro-politics in international relations. The articles in this Special Issue address the everyday negotiation of emotions, shifting between the reproduction of hegemonic structures of feelings and emancipation from them. In other words, the everyday politics of emotions allows an exploration of who gets to express emotions, what emotions are perceived as (il)legitimate or (un)desirable, how emotions are circulated and under what circumstances. Consequently, we identify two thematic strands which emerge as central to an interrogation of ‘everyday’ emotions in international relations and which run through each of the contributions: first, an exploration of the relationship between individual and collective emotions and, second, a focus on the role of embodiment within emotions research and its relationship with the dynamics and structures of power.

Using AI Methods to Evaluate a Minimal Model for Perception

Abstract The relationship between philosophy and research on artificial intelligence (AI) has been difficult since its beginning, with mutual misunderstanding and sometimes even hostility. By contrast, we show how an approach informed by both philosophy and AI can be productive. After reviewing some popular frameworks for computation and learning, we apply the AI methodology of “build it and see” to tackle the philosophical and psychological problem of characterizing perception as distinct from sensation. Our model comprises a network of very simple, but interacting agents which have binary experiences of the “yes/no”-type and communicate their experiences with each other. When does such a network refer to a single agent instead of a distributed network of entities? We apply machine learning techniques to address the following related questions: i) how can the model explain stability of compound entities, and ii) how could the model implement a single task such as perceptual inference? We thereby find consistency with previous work on “interface” strategies from perception research. While this reflects some necessary conditions for the ascription of agency, we suggest that it is not sufficient. Here, AI research, if it is intended to contribute to conceptual understanding, would benefit from issues previously raised by philosophy. We thus conclude the article with a discussion of action-selection, the role of embodiment, and consciousness to make this more explicit. We conjecture that a combination of AI research and philosophy allows general principles of mind and being to emerge from a “quasi-empirical” investigation.

Racism, Popular Culture, and the Everyday Rosebud Reservation

Racism, Popular Culture, and the Everyday Rosebud Reservation Thomas Biolsi (bio) HOW DO WE MAKE SCHOLARLY (and political) sense of the everyday lives of people living in Native communities? By "everyday" I do not mean the episodic moments (and movements) of critical consciousness or resistance (e.g., protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline) or of heightened awareness of racial or colonial oppression (e.g., the Idle No More Movement).1 Instead, I mean the mundane, habituated, and taken-for-granted daily routines that compose most of Native experience. This is not at all to say that the everyday is not power laden or that the personal is not political for Native people. Far from it; there is no question that this everyday world is "structured" by settler colonialism and capitalism in determinate ways, including what we might aptly call "everyday racism."2 But that does not exhaust the everyday world of Native people. Both individuals and the everyday worlds they actively take part in making have what Chris Andersen insightfully calls density—a complexity (and a politics) not reducible to a single subject position. Even if we recognize that the Native subject is complicated by "intersectionality," this does not approach the full complexity of Native density. Andersen quotes Robin Kelley on the density of Black being, which Kelley insists is "not just political struggle but the struggles of everyday life …: fighting, dancing, begging, cajoling, teaching, thinking, loving." Andersen forces us to recognize the "more serious and infinitely less schematic livedness" of Native life.3 Indeed, Andersen's argument is that theorizing the politics of colonialism and racism—which, given the nature of structural accounts, runs the risk of schematization—will be deepened by careful attention to the everyday. After all, most Native people do not theorize settler colonialism or racism or explicitly engage in anticolonial or antiracist action in their everyday lives. Nevertheless, they live both within and against oppression. How do they do it? By examining the everyday world of Native people—and taking the role of embodiment seriously, as Brendan Hokowhitu urges us to do—we can bring to light Native ways of being that have escaped scholarly attention.4 In pursuit of the everyday on Rosebud Reservation, I begin with two South Dakota scenes. Scene one. From 1910 to 1997 a mural titled The Spirit of the West, created by New York artist Edwin Blashfield, graced the governor's office in the [End Page 77] South Dakota Capitol in Pierre (Figure 1). State historian Doane Robinson described the mural at the time of installation: "South Dakota is represented as a beautiful woman, in the spotlight, with the figure of hope floating over her and pointing forward. Trappers and settlers are beating back and overcoming the Indians who are clinging to her garments, attempting to impede her progress. Outlawry, represented by a dark and hooded figure is scuttling away into the darkness. In the background the prairie schooners of the early settlers are to be seen making their way across the prairie."5 After a long controversy beginning at least as early as the 1970s, in which the mural was severely criticized by Lakota people as racist because of its negative and exclusionary—even genocidal—depiction of Indians, it was walled over by Governor William Janklow (R) in 1997 after he had long resisted making any changes.6 The mural clearly fell into line with a persistent settler-colonial imagination of Indian people as the antithesis of civilization, with no contribution to make to, or modern place in, South Dakota. In the present, white imaginings of incompetent tribal governments that cannot be trusted to dispense justice to non-Indians on the reservation or traveling through it, of lazy people (including "welfare queens") living on "government handouts," and of Indian children who are a menace to white children in public schools are alive and well.7 In 2006 a group of Rosebud Sioux schoolchildren and their parents and guardians sued the off-reservation Winner School District in federal court for creating a "racially hostile educational environment." The plaintiffs claimed that "Caucasian students frequently call Native American students racially derogatory names, such as 'dirty Indian,' 'Black boy,' 'Indian bitch,' or...

‘The only learning I’m going to get’: Students with intellectual disabilities learning a second language through performative pedagogy

Traditionally, adults with intellectual disabilities have not been given the option of participating in and thus benefiting from higher and post-secondary education. However, over the last number of years, an increasing number of inclusive tertiary educational programmes have come into existence. This article focuses on one such programme entitled Arts, Science and Inclusive Applied Practice delivered in the Trinity Centre for People with Intellectual Disabilities, School of Education, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. The aim of this study was to consider the role of embodiment in supporting the Second Language Acquisition (SLA) process of a group of students with intellectual disabilities. The paper describes a project which integrated two of the programme modules – Italian for Beginners and Exploring Art: Renaissance to Modern. Findings presented support the use of a performative approach to second language learning for students with intellectual disabilities and sheds light on the connection between embodiment, language and learning in a performative key.

Health metaphors and embodiment in Arab economic discourse

Abstract This article is a corpus-based study that examines selected economic metaphors in Arabic with a view to ascertaining whether their presence in a non-Indo-European language can be explained in terms of universal embodied cognition. When exploring the relationship between certain bodily experiences and the corresponding metaphorical expressions in Arabic this paper addresses the following research questions: (1) What is the role of embodiment in Arab economic discourse? (2) Is Arab economic discourse in any way similar to its English counterpart? (3) If so, could any of these similarities be due to the influence of English? (4) If so, does that pose a challenge to the embodiment hypothesis?

Performative Reintegration: Applied Theatre for Conflict Transformation in Contemporary Colombia

Civil wars and internal armed conflicts are commonly followed by transitional justice processes known as Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration programmes. Focusing on the social reintegration of ex-combatants in Colombia, this article examines the role of embodiment and secondary care in conflict transformation, and outlines the process of incorporating creative and embodied practice as core elements of transitional justice mechanisms. It discusses the relational qualities of applied theatre, policy development and implementation to demonstrate how embodied practice enables peace-building practitioners and ex-combatants to develop a better understanding of how affective transactions and emotional states shape transitional societies. In so doing, this article discusses some of the challenges of devising sustainable arts-based interventions when working with communities that have been significantly affected by war.

Role of embodiment and presence in human perception of robots’ facial cues

Abstract Both robotic and virtual agents could one day be equipped with social abilities necessary for effective and natural interaction with human beings. Although virtual agents are relatively inexpensive and flexible, they lack the physical embodiment present in robotic agents. Surprisingly, the role of embodiment and physical presence for enriching human-robot-interaction is still unclear. This paper explores how these unique features of robotic agents influence three major elements of human-robot face-to-face communication, namely the perception of visual speech, facial expression, and eye-gaze. We used a quantitative approach to disentangle the role of embodiment from the physical presence of a social robot, called Ryan, with three different agents (robot, telepresent robot, and virtual agent), as well as with an actual human. We used a robot with a retro-projected face for this study, since the same animation from a virtual agent could be projected to this robotic face, thus allowing comparison of the virtual agent’s animation behaviors with both telepresent and the physically present robotic agents. The results of our studies indicate that the eye gaze and certain facial expressions are perceived more accurately when the embodied agent is physically present than when it is displayed on a 2D screen either as a telepresent or a virtual agent. Conversely, we find no evidence that either the embodiment or the presence of the robot improves the perception of visual speech, regardless of syntactic or semantic cues. Comparison of our findings with previous studies also indicates that the role of embodiment and presence should not be generalized without considering the limitations of the embodied agents.

Aesthetics of light in the works of the artist Rafie Al-Nassiry

that allow the recipient to identify the different aspects of the work of art, because it has a role in embodiment of formal structure of the work, moving the rest of the elements through the intensity and power of brightness, and access to emotional quality through visual appearance. The light also has an important role in demonstrating the visual effects of aesthetic values on the print surfaces, which express the creative aspect of the artist, as well as of the physical impact of the vision, where it determines the perimeter of vision and the distinction between the different features of the visual forms items of shape, color and texture. This is in addition to the natural ability of light to suggest as a means of recognizing some of the visual facts. It consists of electromagnetic properties that fall on the elements and distinguish them, thus motivate the vision sense as well as the light is distinguished with ability to penetrate objects to bring out its meanings and reflect what is inside them, as well as its moral and spiritual values. The present research, focuses on revealing the aesthetics of light in the works of the artist "Rafie Al-Nassery" through structural and technical treatments to organize the elements of the composition according to the vision of contemporary modernist artist. As the research contained an introduction and then problem of research, which determined by answering several questions: What are the technical treatments used for the light element by the artist "Al-Nassery" to demonstrate the aesthetic value of his printing and visual enrichment? How did the artist "Rafie Al-Nassery" show the effectiveness of using light through aesthetic determinants of his typographical characteristics on the structural and technical levels? Was his employment of light techniques invested in the state of communication between the aesthetic and functional dimensions in his typography achievement? Objectives: 1. Recognition of the aesthetics of light in works of the artist "Rafie Al-Nassery". 2. The effect of relationship of light on color and role of each in them in formulating the other and their impact on artist's formulation of using implicit light in his work printing aiming at producing color and tangible dimensions that enrich the aesthetic and visual range of the typography work. 3. Focus on the common importance of both light and color, especially in modern methods based on the scientific fact that there is no color except in light itself. Results, 1. The aesthetics of light in the productions of the artist "Rafie Al-Nassery" attract visually active to the recipient, through their various uses of vision values

The Evil of Banality: On the Life and Death Importance of Thinking

The Evil of Banality: On the Life and Death Importance of Thinking

‘You’re not big, you’re just in Asia’: Expatriate embodiment and emotional experiences of size in Singapore

This article brings together work on privileged migration with critical geographical work on body size. In uniting these areas together I focus on the role of embodiment within expatriate experiences of migration to Singapore. I argue that despite a developing body of critical work on migration, this work has failed to explore embodied experiences of size. To counter this gap, this research demonstrates the importance of recognising how sized narratives and experiences are shaped through gendered migration and the need to explore the multiplicity of experiences of women in different places of the city. Drawing upon empirical research with expatriate women in Singapore I advance work within critical geographies of body size by presenting original work that challenges dominant and medicalised understandings of fatness as inherently bad. Furthermore, I contribute to the growing area of work that places emphasis on the subjective nature of size through recognition of work on migration. In this article, I explore how migration was embodied and discussed through size, firstly by looking at how women discussed losing their sense of identity. Secondly, the temporal and spatial embeddedness of size. Finally, how women rejected and resisted dominant discourses through humour and indifference.

Learning by enacting: The role of embodiment in chemistry education

Can students learn from viewing an instructor's model-supported demonstrations alone or do they benefit from physically enacting the demonstrated concepts? This study investigated the value of enactment when learning chemistry using 3D molecular models in video and classroom lectures. We hypothesized that students who used models to enact demonstrated concepts would learn more than those who only watched a model-supported demonstration. Students watched a video lecture in a small classroom in Study 1 and a live lecture in a large lecture hall in Study 2. In both studies, one group watched and enacted the instructor's model-supported demonstration and the second group watched without enacting. In both contexts, students learned more if they enacted the demonstration than if they just watched the demonstration. Specifically, those who used models to enact an instructor's demonstrations performed better on problems that required drawn answers. Learning from enacted demonstrations was resilient over a delay of five days between instruction and testing and transferred to performance on classroom assessments that differed from the demonstrated tasks. We conclude that enactment with hand-held models promoted learning by off-loading the demand of imaging concepts and processes in the mind on to external objects and actions in the world, and that meaningful learning was promoted by lowering cognitive load while enhancing generative processing.

Metaphor, materiality, and method: the central role of embodiment in the history of education

Delivered as one of the keynote addresses at the International Standing Committee on the History of Education (ISCHE) Conference held in Chicago in August 2016, this paper offers a broad review of how the body and embodiment have been incorporated into histories of education. Based on this historiography, I extend three “inspiring provocations” intended to set the stage for new questions, new theorising, and new methods regarding the body in the field. By asking new questions of the past, drawing on innovative theoretical and methodological frameworks, I argue, historians can continue to give proper empirical standing to the body and embodiment in our histories of education. I conclude with a central question: What are the important questions in the history of education that the body might help us to answer?

The role of embodiment in third wave mindfulness based cognitive therapies

Third wave mindfulness based cognitive therapies (MBT), despite their widespread use, have been slow to produce an evidence base as wide and as strong as that generated by traditional second wave CBT therapies. The increasing demand for evidence based interventions, necessitates the need for MBTs to draw upon evidence from other disciplines and fine tune research to look at specific aspects of mindfulness such as embodiment, to strengthen the evidence base for these therapies.