Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
To get a sense of the intended dynamism of this model, imagine the entire
“awareness” rectangle as one unit that can shift to the left or right on the cognitive
continuum as a function of the agent's concentration. Routine actions only require
minimal thought and a limited amount of highly relevant sensory data. The enactive
model of routine actions, such as driving, would be visually depicted by having the
awareness rectangle resting at equilibrium in the center of the spectrum with small
deviations to the left to update and revise strategy and deviations to the right to
interactively evaluate those ideas.
To simulate bounds on working memory, the agent only has a limited amount of
cognitive resources. These resources are used through a process of directed atten-
tion, i.e., concentration. During this simulated form of concentration, agents devote
their attention to refl ecting on the situation (building more detailed mental models,
running complex mental simulations, etc.) or acting in a deliberate and interactive
manner to inspect the world.
If the agent is performing an unfamiliar task, however, cognitive resources are
recruited to actively build a mental model of the situation, which requires perform-
ing experimental interactions, closely examining the results in the environment, and
then updating the mental model in a slower global model of perceptual logic.
Initially, novices have to think a lot about what they are doing, which means they are
using a lot of the previous attention resources to build up a cognitive model by per-
forming micro experiments interacting with the world to hypothesize about this
particular domain. As novices build up this model, they begin to interact without
having to pay as much attention to what they are doing. The enactive model claims
this happens because the experienced individual is able to use the new perceptual
logic to fi lter irrelevant sensory details and operate effectively with minimum con-
scious supervision of a task (see Fig.
7.6
for an illustration of different layers of
perceptual logic).
7.3.6.2
Perceptual Logic
According to the enactive model of creativity, the contents of perception vary based
on an individual's position on this continuum of cognition (Glenberg
1997
). As indi-
viduals deviate from the equilibrium in the center of the spectrum, perception
becomes partially “unclamped” (a term coming from Glenberg's (
1997
) theory of
memory) which loosens semantic constraints on sensory input and memory. Different
points on the cognitive spectrum result in a unique perceptual logic that is used to
intelligently perceive affordances in the environment. The enactive approach in cog-
nitive science describes the “intelligence” of perception in a theoretical sense, but
operationalizing the theory required explaining the implicit black box mechanism
that makes perception “intelligent.” The mechanism basically serves to fi lter all pos-
sible affordances and present only relevant affordances to conscious perception.
The enactive approach proposes that perceptual intelligence arises through the
formation of percept-action pairings that are chunked and internalized for quick
