PSY 355 Psychology & Media in the Digital Age This page was last modified on October 6, 2024

The 'Extended Mind" Hypothesis (Clark & Chalmers, 1998)

Citations in Google Scholar:  2,783 in 2015, 3,962 in 2018, 6,084 in 2021, 7,654 in 2023, 9,040 in 2024
~ 376,000 results in Google (2024)

Where is your mind?

Where does your mind end and your body begin?

Or, where does your body end and your mind begin?

Is your mind just your brain??? Is your mind "inside" your skull the way the brain is inside the skull?

Let's look at a few thought experiments and some actual research achievements...


Scenario 1: Merleau-Ponty (1945/1962): The Blind Man with a Cane

• Merleau-Ponty (1945). This French psychologist-philosopher pointed to the experience of a blind person who navigates the world with a cane or stick. He argues, "The blind man’s stick has ceased to be an object for him, and is no longer perceived for itself; its point has become an area of sensitivity, extending the scope and active radius of touch, and providing a parallel to sight" (p. 143).
  
  

Scenario 2: Bach-y-Rita's Work on Sensory Substitution and Neuroplasticity

• Paul Bach-y-Rita (1934-2006; University of Wisconsin-Madison) pioneered the study of whether a missing sense could be replaced by technology using a different sense (Bach-y-Rita & Kercel, 2003).
  

• An early example of this technology is calledTelevision Sensory Substitution (TVSS) for use with people who are totally blind (sold commercially as BrainPort V100). It involves a small video camera mounted on the head (e.g., in a pair of glasses) and linked to a central processing unit that, in turn, sends information to a tongue-display unit (TDU). The TDU contains an array of 400-small points that, like the dots in Braille, create a sensation on the tongue. The TDU extracts information from the visual signal and transforms that information into energy (either as vibrations or a direct electrical stimulation of the skin of the tongue).
  

• BrainPort V100 is described as "an oral electronic vision aid.  It works like a 400 point refreshable Braille display from which you learn to interpret the bubble-like patterns on your tongue as representative of objects in their surroundings."

• "After training with TVSS, subjects report experiencing images in space, instead of on the skin. They learn to make perceptual judgments using visual means of interpretation, such as perspective, parallax, looming and zooming, and depth estimates" (Bach-y-Rita & Kercel, 2003, p. 543). Furthermore, "It is possible to recognize a face or to accomplish hand-eye coordinated tasks with only a few hundred points of stimulation." (ibid.)
  

Scenario #3: Geometrical Shape Rotation (taken from Clark & Chalmers, 1998)

Case 1: Watching a computer screen with geometrical shapes and figuring out how those shapes can fit together

Case 2: Watching a computer screen with the ability to change the orientation of the shapes and figuring out how those shapes fit together

Case 3: In the future, watching a computer screen with a neural implant that can change how cognition pictures the orientation of the shapes and figuring out how those shapes fit together.

Are these all examples of cognition? In Case 3 the implant helps the mind do exactly what it does in Case 1 (except faster).

But, how is Case 2 in which the manipulation on the screen changes the orientation of the shapes any different than Case 3 or Case 1?

Scenario #4: Brain-Computer Interfaces

• Extensive work is now underway to develop interfaces between the brain and a computer to allow individuals to do things with their thoughts that they cannot now do.

The brain implant that turns thoughts into text:  A new neural interface lets people type with their mind (Thompson & Bundell, 2021)

In a study by Willett et al. in 2021, researchers reported that they have developed a type of brain implant that, when linked to a computer, allows an individual who is paralyzed to imagine handwriting words and these thoughts are translated into actual text:

Here we developed an intracortical BCI  [brain-computer interface] that decodes attempted handwriting movements from neural activity in the motor cortex and translates it to text in real time, using a recurrent neural network decoding approach. With this BCI, our study participant, whose hand was paralysed from spinal cord injury, achieved typing speeds of 90 characters per minute with 94.1% raw accuracy online, and greater than 99% accuracy offline with a general-purpose autocorrect. [Abstract]

Restoration of Movement in Tetraplegic Patient (Ajiboye et al. (2017))

The same team as reported above [BrainGate research consortium] has been working on the restoration of movement of the arms in persons who are completely paralyzed. In 2017 they described their achievement:

We report the findings of an individual with traumatic high-cervical spinal cord injury who coordinated reaching and grasping movements using his own paralysed arm and hand, reanimated through implanted FES [functional electrical stimulation], and commanded using his own cortical signals through an intracortical brain–computer interface (iBCI)… To our knowledge, this is the first report of a combined implanted FES+iBCI neuroprosthesis for restoring both reaching and grasping movements to people with chronic tetraplegia due to spinal cord injury, and represents a major advance, with a clear translational path, for clinically viable neuroprostheses for restoration of reaching and grasping after paralysis [Abstract]

Where is the boundary between the skin and the skull?

Active Externalism
 

Consider in Scrabble how players use the tile holder to try alternative orderings of letters

Or, how sailors use a nautical slide rule to calculate speed, distance, or time traveled?

Or, how we use pen and pencil to carry out multiplication or long division (without a calculator!) 

     

What does this tell us?

   
The most crucial example of the mind's extension into the world comes in language

• Groups gathering to brainstorm ideas about how to reach a goal = using language

• Individuals who put down in writing their ideas and gradually work on them to develop them = using language

What about mind? Can this notion of active externalism be further advanced?

   

Case A

Mary Jones hears from a friend that there is a wonderful exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She decides to see the exhibit and takes the bus up to 82nd Street near 5th Avenue in NYC. She has consulted her memory which knows that the address of the museum. This allows her to get to the place she wants to go. 

Case B

Fred Smith who is experiencing the early stages of Alzheimer's Disease carries with him a notepad. Whenever he hears something that interests him, he writes it down in the notepad. His friend tells him about the exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and he writes that down. Later that day, he looks at his notepad, decides to visit the exhibit, and sees the address of the museum on 82nd St. and 5th Avenue. Using that information he goes to the exhibit.

What is the difference between Case A and Case B?

In point of fact, the notepad for Fred plays the same role as memory does for Mary. And, indeed, if we were to spend a day with Fred, we would see him constantly consulting his notepad in the same sorts of ways that Mary consults her memory. The information in Fred's notebook is entered as the information comes to him and, thus, would likely be accurate. Furthermore, Fred's notebook is always there (or, at least, almost always there). Hence, like memory, Fred's notebook is reliable, trustworthy, and accessible.

   
What about socially extended cognition?

• Couples or other socially-connected individuals can very well serve in similar ways to the examples cited earlier

• Each entity in a socially-connected group can hold part of the memory needed by the whole group

• Individuals who work in very close collaboration find that the borders between what one does/knows and the other one does/knows blurs. For example,

• Doctors performing surgery including the surgeon, anesthesiologist, primary nurse assistant, etc.
• Police officers or Marines approaching a dangerous location with the possibility of hostile fire
• Parents as they put their children to bed in the evening
• Players on a sports team like basketball
  

• The coupling between agents in a social relationship depends upon the use of language

• "Language...is not a mirror of our inner states but a complement to them. It serves as a tool whose role is to extend cognition in ways that on-board devices cannot." (p. 18)

• Cognition can, therefore, be extended to reside within the group itself.

   The Self (and Mind) as Extended

• From the vantage point of these arguments, the self, too, can be considered to extend significantly beyond the limits of the physical boundary of my skin.
  

• As I increasingly rely upon active external couplings, my identity more and more resides not just IN me (my skull & skin) but BETWEEN me and those external entities with which I am closely connected.

• Reports of users of sensory substitutions (e.g., BrainPort V100) consistently note that the external device or technology "disappears" or becomes transparent. The user doesn't experience the device itself as something separate from themselves, but somehow integrated into a unified experience of cognition and action.
  

Notes from Fr. Hevern

Historically, as we saw a few weeks ago, the pioneer American psychologist and philosopher, William James argued that the self has multiple facets including

• Material Self includes our bodies, our clothes and possessions, & our family members

• Social Self is that "recognition that [we get] from [our] mates....Properly speaking, a man has as many social selves as there are individuals who recognize him." (James, 1890)

• Spiritual Self is our "inner or subjective being, psychic faculties or dispositions, taken concretely"

• Pure "Ego"  which is the principle of personal unity.

The late Cornell University Prof. Ulric Neisser (d. 2012), one of the founders of cognitive psychology, also argued that the self understands itself in five ways (Neisser, 1988). He labeled these forms of self-knowledge as

• Ecological Self = "the self as perceived with respect to the physical environment." Neisser points out that "the ecological self does not always coincide with the biological body. In particular, anything that moves with the body tends to be perceived as part of the self – especially if its movements are self-produced. This principle applies most obviously to the clothes we wear...[However] any controllable object that moves together with the point of observation can become part of the ecological self. This principle applies even to automobiles..." (p. 39).
  

• Interpersonal Self = the self who uses "species-specific signals of emotional rapport and communication"

• Extended Self = "our personal memories and anticipations"

• Private Self = "the unique and particular" experiences which cannot be shared with others

• Conceptual Self ("self-concept") = the networks of assumptions and theories that are embedded in the person I understand myself to be, e.g., social roles (husband, professor, American), internal entities (the soul, conscious mind, brain), and socially established dimensions of difference (intelligence, wealth, attractiveness). This is what people believe about themselves (even it if is not true).
  

Questions to consider

• What forms of active externalisms do each of us use every day?

• Where are our memories stored?

• What tools do we use in order to get our jobs and lives accomplished?

• What media forms serve as parts of our extended selves?

We'll split into five groups and discuss these questions for about 10 minutes. In each group, one person needs to record and report on the answers that came up in the group.

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Cognitive Psychology of Human Multitasking {W}

(Wang et al., 2015)

• People frequently "multitask" across different forms of media at the same time.
  

• Laboratory experimental research tends to find deteriorating performance in multitask conditions, that is, lowered levels of cognitive performance or success and, even, exposure to life-threatening conditions

• Cognitive psychological research points to
  

• "Central bottleneck" problems where many tasks must be performed in a particular sequence (that is, one at a time) and, therefore, there are structural limits to what can be done at the same time.

• "Limited capacity" theories argue that there are limited cognitive resources by which to encode, store, retrieve, and process information. Hence, multiple demands upon those limited resources will result in decreased performance.

• "The Law of Less Work": People tend to avoid demanding or difficult cognitive tasks which are often experienced as unpleasant or disagreeable.
  

Focus of Analysis: What is involved when a human being tries to perform two tasks “in which one or both tasks utilize media technology” (p. 106)

 

Task Relations: How are these two tasks related to each other?	Task Inputs: How is task information presented to the user?	Task Outputs: Is any behavioral response required by the task(s)?	User Differences: Do differences in users affect the processing of & response to the task(s)?
Task Hierarchy Task Switch Task Relevance Shared Modality Task Contiguity	Information Modality Information Flow Emotional Content	Behavioral Responses Time Pressure	Personality styles, expertise & knowledge, etc.