4 - Dynamical Systems Approaches to Cognition

Summary

The dynamical systems approach to cognition is the theoretical framework within which this embodied view of cognition can be formalized. This chapter reviews the core concepts of the dynamical systems approach and illustrates them through a set of experimentally accessible examples. Particular attention is given to how cognition can be understood in terms that are compatible with principles of neural function, most prominently, with the space-time continuity of neural processes. The chapter reviews efforts to form concepts based on the mathematical theory of dynamical systems into a rigorous scientific approach toward cognition that embraces the embodied and situated stance. The chapter explains how behavioral signatures of the neural field dynamics may provide evidence for the Dynamical Field Theory (DFT) account of cognition. The theoretical concept of stability, at the core of dynamical systems thinking, is the key to understanding autonomy.