Embodied Social Learning

As humans, our bodies hold rich records of our experiences that shape how we learn from and perceive others in a complex social world. While notions of embodied cognition have been discussed by philosophers, cognitives scientists and psychologists for over a century, the advent and continued development of human neuroscience and VR methods have increased the nuance and sophistication of our knowledge of the relationship between embodiment and cognition. Our team explores the cognitive strategies and experiential factors that shape the brain processes linking action with perception, and how these embodied links shape social learning.

Taking a transdisciplinary approach to explore embodied social learning, we borrow from the arts and robotics to address questions related to how we perceive and learn from others. In our brain imaging work, we often collaborate with expert dancers, or invite non-dancers to take part in intensive learning paradigms with pre-/post-training recordings of brain activity, to help us build a richer understanding of experience-dependent plasticity at brain and behavioural levels. Such duets with the performing arts (and artists) have allowed us to propose a new theoretical framework of embodied neuroaesthetics, while also revealing exciting new avenues to continue exploring the intricate relationship between embodiment, neuroaesthetics, and social learning.