Barbara Strozzilaan 300 , 1083 HN Amsterdam | +31 204043982 | www.mobiquityinc.com Rabo bank: 1066.78.345 BIC:RABONL2U IBAN:NL96RABO0106678345

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Your body is your brain Stephan Takken, Digital UX Designer, Mobiquity Europe

You probably believe that cognition is a mind-only activity, but actually it isn’t. Try this: grab 15 assorted coins, throw them on the table and without moving them compute the total. You can do it sure, but it takes effort. Now, imagine doing that again but now you are allowed the use of your hands, easier isn’t it? So what happens here? You actually are using your body to process information and I believe it influences the way you perceive, behave and how much you can handle mentally.

The next couple of months I will take you on an overview journey in the subject. In several blog entries we will see what philosophers have to say about the body being the brain and we will review some key theories in psychology and related fields. Every blog article will have some key take-aways for you to think about or even implement in your day-to-day work.

First we will explore the famous phenomena of priming; we’ll learn about how an idea or body posture can influence your thinking, but also how an idea can influence how you behave. For example, did you know that when you read about being old you will move slower? (Bargh et al. 1996)

Second we will tap into Tactile Reasoning; this concept explains how we use our bodies to make sense of information in the world around us (remember the coins). Who doesn't sometimes count with fingers, sort bolts and nuts before assembling (Kirsh and Maglio, 1994) or use your finger as a pointer when reading?

Barbara Strozzilaan 300 , 1083 HN Amsterdam | +31 204043982 | www.mobiquityinc.com Rabo bank: 1066.78.345 BIC:RABONL2U IBAN:NL96RABO0106678345

KvK:34270669 BTW/VAT:NL8178.04.146.B01

To wrap up the series we will make the leap to embodied cognition where we will conclude our journey by explaining in what way I think the body is part of your brain and why this matters. To give a sneak peek in the subject, did you know that our language is full of body metaphors? These metaphors connect the physical with the mental world. When we had a mentally straining day for example we say: “I’ve had a heavy day”. When we describe a person you could say he’s a soft person, or cold.

References

Bargh, John A., Chen, Mark, Burrows, Laura (1996). Automaticity of social behavior: Direct effects of trait construct and stereotype activation on action. Journal of personality and social psychology 71 (2): 230-44

Kirsh, D. & Maglio, P. (1995) Complementary strategies: Why we use our hands when we think, Proceedings of the seventeenth annual conference of, 1-7.