The 4Es and the 4As (Affect, Agency, Affordance, Autonomy) in the Meshed Architecture of Social Cognition
Abstract
This chapter builds on the model of a meshed architecture introduced by (Christensen et al., Mind & Language 31:37–66, 2016) to explain skilled performance. The model, as it has been developed, explains how higher-order cognitive elements are integrated with lower-order, automatic motoric processes during performance, mapping out a vertical-hierarchical integration. A more complex, enhanced model of the meshed architecture is developed here, introducing (1) intrinsic control features which are not reducible to automatic processes, (2) affective factors that modulate both cognitive and motoric processes, and (3) a horizontal integration of environmental, social, and cultural-normative factors, consistent with 4E (embodied, embedded, extended, and enactive) approaches in cognitive science. This enhanced model is then applied to the analysis of social cognition, understood as a social interactive performance, in order to show how we can think of the meshing of various semiotic factors in communicative and social interactions.
Publication Title
Handbook of Embodied Psychology: Thinking, Feeling, and Acting
Recommended Citation
(2021). The 4Es and the 4As (Affect, Agency, Affordance, Autonomy) in the Meshed Architecture of Social Cognition. Handbook of Embodied Psychology: Thinking, Feeling, and Acting, 357-379. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78471-3_16
