Discussing the article, "Embodied cognition is not what you think it is," by Andrew D. Wilson and Sabrina Golonka

There are many perspectives that scientists have approached to the world of how people learn behaviors; for example, the biological approach and what this specific article discussed, embodied cognition. Embodied cognition is the approach that all our thoughts and how we achieve our goals throughout our daily lives is not just controlled by our brain, but by our entire body (mediated internally) and the environment via perception. In the article, they explain how human-like robots without motors or control algorithms are still able to walk just like how a human normally walks. The reasoning behind this is not because of the complexity of the brain that gives us a certain way to walk, but simply because of the structure of ours bodies. The article gives the example that humans do not walk like lions because we were not built that way. Embodied cognition shows that the brain isn’t the only part of us that we use to control how we do things. We are able to walk the way we do effortlessly and without thinking because of our bodily structure. 

Not only can embodiment shape locomotion, but it can help to be used in finding your mate, for crickets anyhow. The article explains a study that researchers conducted to see if female crickets finding their mates was an example of embodiment or not. In order to find her mate, the cricket listens for the loudest chirp of her kind. Interneurons connected to a tube in their ears triggers the cricket to move in the direction of the loudest chirp. The researchers used robotic crickets to show that without any computation, the crickets were about to turn on their own in response to the interneuron detecting the most active response or sound, proving embodiment had occurred. 

This article was interesting because of the fact that the researchers used robots to test on to see if embodied cognition can be a way of learning/remembering certain behaviors. However it is confusing to me how it isn’t the brain storing these behaviors in the hippocampus and triggering the correct response once it sees or hears the stimulus. People always say “force of habit” so maybe that’s embodied cognition rather than the brain triggering that habit over and over again.