Embodied Cognition

I just returned from the AAAS 2009 Annual Meeting in Chicago, where I organized and chaired a symposium called "Embodied Cognition: Brains, Mouths, and Hands." There were three great presentations. David Poeppel, New York University, "A Brain's Eye View on Language: Neurobiological Foundations of Comprehension"; Louis Goldstein, University of Southern California and Haskins Laboratories, "An Embodied Theory of Syllabic Organization of Speech"; and Susan Goldin-Meadow, University of Chicago, "Using our Bodies to Change Our Minds". See the AAAS News report, "Early Gestures Can Build A Preschooler's Vocabulary" for more information on the work of Meredith Rowe and Susan Goldin-Meadow, which also appears in a report in the February 13 issue of Science.

Talking Heads: embodied cognition and ethics

Philip Rubin, CEO of Haskins Laboratories, Professor Adjunct of Surgery at the Yale School of Medicine, and IS Group co-founder, was the featured speaker at the December 3, 2008 meeting of the Yale Technology and Ethics Working Group. His presentation, "Talking Heads: embodied cognition and ethics" provided an historical overview of speaking machines and computational models of speech production. In addition, he discussed the importance of considering biological constraints on language and cognition and the ethical implications of research and technological developments related to embodied cognition.