Putting the Brakes on Direct Access to Other Minds: Five Problems for the Embodied Simulation

CHEN Wei; ZHANG Jing

doi:10.16382/j.cnki.1000-5560.2015.04.010

Volume 33 Issue 4

Jan. 2016

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CHEN Wei, ZHANG Jing. Putting the Brakes on Direct Access to Other Minds: Five Problems for the Embodied Simulation[J]. Journal of East China Normal University (Educational Sciences), 2015, 33(4): 65-71. doi: 10.16382/j.cnki.1000-5560.2015.04.010

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CHEN Wei, ZHANG Jing. Putting the Brakes on Direct Access to Other Minds: Five Problems for the Embodied Simulation[J]. Journal of East China Normal University (Educational Sciences), 2015, 33(4): 65-71. doi: 10.16382/j.cnki.1000-5560.2015.04.010

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Putting the Brakes on Direct Access to Other Minds: Five Problems for the Embodied Simulation

doi: 10.16382/j.cnki.1000-5560.2015.04.010

CHEN Wei¹,
ZHANG Jing²

1.
Department of Psychology, Shaoxing University, Shaoxing 312000, China
2.
Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, Leiden 2333 AK, Netherlands

Publish Date: 2015-12-20

Abstract

Abstract

Based on intellectualism, many mainstream researches anticipate understanding other minds as "one mind thinking about the other minds".In recent years, however, this view has been challenged by the "direct social perception"(DSP).According to DSP, problems of accessing to other minds should not be regarded as "mind thinking about minds", instead, the explanandum in intersubjectivity must include "embodied mind perceiving embodied minds".As a substantive theory of DSP, embodied simulation(ES) emphasizes on reusing the core concept of mental simulation and posits a motion simulation as an automatic, unconscious, pre-reflective mechanism to go straight to the other minds, which is generated by the activities of mirror neurons.I propose five problems that should be addressed in order to support ES, and brake on direct access to other minds:(1) the similarity of brain-body system is not necessary for social interaction; (2) the priming of ES is affected by plenty of stimulus rather than the lack of stimulus; (3) activation of own motor program is not necessary for action understanding; (4) the accounts for classic experiments of mirror neuron is compatible with mentalizing accounts; (5) mirror neurons originate from sensorimotor associative learning rather than gene-based natural selection or adaptation.
- other minds problem,
- direct social perception,
- mirror neurons,
- embodied simulation

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References(30)

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