Embodied and Distributed Cognition
Distributed Language: cognition beyond the brain
This short paper was a presentation at the Annual International Forum in the Humanities Conference on Interdisciplinarity in Cognitive Science Research, State University for the Humanities, Moscow (March 2012).
As Cognitive Science develops a view of agency, we are learning much about human cognition. First, as living things,... more
Download (.pdf) Simulating others: the basis of human cognition?
This appeared as:
Cowley, S.J. (2004). Simulating others: the basis of human cognition? Language Sciences, 26/3: 273-299.
The paper critiques the argument of Michael Tomasello’s Cultural Origins of Human Cognition (1999). This culture-first... more
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How human infants deal with symbol grounding
These proofs appeared as:
Cowley, S. J. (2007). How human infants deal with symbol grounding. Interaction Studies, 8/1: 81-104.
Taking a distributed view of language, this paper naturalizes symbol grounding. Learning to talk is traced to — not... more
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Distributed cognition at three months: caregiver-infant dyads in kwaZulu-Natal
This appeared as:
Cowley, S.J. (2003). Distributed cognition at three months: mother-infant dyads in kwaZulu Natal. Alternation, 10.2: 229-257.
Until recently, cognitive science adopted what has been challenged as an ‘Input-Output’ (I-O) model (Hurley, 1998).... more
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Why brains matter: an integrational perspective on The Symbolic Species
This appeared as:
Cowley, S. J. (2002). Why brains matter: an integrational perspective on “The Symbolic Species”. Language Sciences, 24: 73-95.
Deacon's co-evolutionary theory provides a new basis for how we think about language and brains. Instead of ascribing... more
The turning of the tide: rethinking language, mind and world
These proofs appeared as;
Cowley, S.J. & Zheng, D. (2011) The turning of the tide: Rethinking language, mind and world. Journal of Multilingual Discourses, 6/2:197-210.
The paper explores radical ideas that are introduced in Per Linell’s (2009) “Rethinking language, mind, and world... more
The cognitive dynamics of distributed language.
These proofs appeared as:
Cowley, S.J. (2007). The cognitive dynamics and distributed language. Language Sciences, 29/5: 575-583.
This is the introduction to the Special Issue of Language Sciences that launched the "distributed language... more
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Long-term relationships as a benchmark for robot personhood
This appeared as:
MacDorman, K. F. & Cowley, S. J. (2008). Long-term relationships as a benchmark for robot personhood. To appear in AAAI 2008 Spring Symposium on Emotion, Personality, and Social Behavior. March 26-28, 2008. Stanford, California.
The human body constructs itself into a person by becoming attuned to the affective consequences of its actions in... more
Music and the Extended Self
My Chapter from the Book Situated Aesthetics:Art beyond the Skin. Edited by Riccardo Manzotti. available at imprint-academic.com
Leonard Bernstein argues that our musical experience must be constructed out of individual notes, the way Chomsky sees... more
Dynamic empathy: A new formulation for the simulation theory of mind reading
Cognitive Systems Research 9 (2008) 52–63
The controversy between the theory-theory (TT) and simulation-theory (ST) has evolved so that it is often hard to tell... more
Extended cognition and intrinsic properties
Published in Philosophical Psychology, 23: 6, 741
— 757
The Hypothesis of Extended Cognition (HEC) have been criticized as committing what is called the coupling/constitution... more
"The Persistent Peril of the Artificial Slave"
Published in the journal Science Fiction Studies, vol. 38.2 (July, 2011): pp. 232-252. The link below leads to the abstract on the journal's website.
This article surveys and analyzes the pre-industrial history of artificial humanoid servants and their historical... more
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Ontological Complexity and Human Culture
Co-authored with Frederico Fonseca and presented at Philosophy’s Relevance in Information Science, Paderborn, Germany, October 3-4, 2008.
Ontologies are being used by information scientists in order to facilitate the sharing of meaningful information.... more
