The following text discusses cognitive science.
Embodied cognition challenges the traditional view that the mind operates like a computer processing abstract symbols. Instead, cognition is shaped by having a body that moves through and interacts with the physical world. Perceptual and motor systems don't merely serve cognition—they constitute it. Evidence shows that physical posture affects emotional states, hand gestures facilitate thinking, and grounded metaphors (such as spatial terms for time) structure abstract reasoning. Rather than computation happening in a disembodied processor, thinking emerges from brain-body-environment interactions.
What fundamental assumption about cognition does embodied cognition challenge?
That the body has any connection to the brain
That cognition operates like abstract symbol processing independent of the body
That people have perceptual and motor systems
That thinking ever involves the brain
Correct Answer: B
Choice B is the correct answer. Embodied cognition "challenges the traditional view that the mind operates like a computer processing abstract symbols"—thinking is not disembodied computation.
- Evidence: Challenges abstract symbol processing view.
- Reasoning: Body shapes cognition, not just serves it.
- Conclusion: Abstract, disembodied computation model is challenged.
Choice A is incorrect because traditional cognitive science acknowledged brain-body connection for input/output. Choice C is incorrect because these systems' role in constituting thought is the claim. Choice D is incorrect because brain is still involved, but body and environment are too.