Climbing to yourself: A developmental embodied cognition perspective on the relation between the minimal self and sensorimotor and cognitive skills

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Markus Raab; Professorin Azzurra Ruggeri
• Subject Area: General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology ; Developmental and Educational Psychology
• Term: from 2018 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 402792415

The objective of this project is to understand the bidirectional link between the minimal self and sensorimotor as well as cognitive skills from a developmental embodied cognition perspective. By integrating cognitive, developmental and movement science, we tackle one of the ultimate goals of the SPP call by exploring how core mechanisms (i.e. internal model) generate a self in the course of ontogenetic development (i.e. across the lifespan) or the acquisition of expertise (i.e. training sensorimotor and cognitive skills). Specifically, we will answer one of the five questions of the SPP call: "How does creating and having a self work back on sensorimotor skills and cognitive processes?" From a developmental embodied cognition perspective, this question cannot be answered without considering the bidirectionality between the minimal self and sensorimotor and cognitive skills. Theoretically we propose the mechanism that optimizing the internal model by integrating sensorimotor reafferences and cognitive feedback will lead to a stabilization of the minimal self. In turn, the stability of the minimal self will foster sensorimotor and cognitive skills. To scrutinize this mechanism, we will conduct two large-scale studies.In Study 1 we will investigate with young children to adults how sensorimotor and cognitive skills influence the minimal self. Therefore, we will set up a 3-month training study in which participants improve either cognitive planning (=mentally plan a route), sensorimotor planning (=move along a predefined route), or a combination (=free climbing) via climbing tasks. The combination of sensorimotor and cognitive tasks allows us to disentangle how participants mentally prepare and/or move along a climbing route. These measurements will be compared to general, validated planning tasks, such as solving a vertical maze. We will explore how the development of these sensorimotor and cognitive skills influences task-specific and general measures of the minimal self, namely own–other discrimination, full body illusion, and self-assessments of ownership and agency.In Study 2 we will investigate how manipulating the minimal self influences sensorimotor and cognitive skills. Therefore we will create a realistic manipulation of the self by changing reafferences and cognitive feedback in virtual reality and applying weight suits. Manipulations of the minimal self through the use of virtual reality will allow us to test how sensorimotor and cognitive skills are affected.Our theoretical contribution will be an empirically tested mechanism of the minimal self, namely the optimization of the internal model through the use of sensorimotor reafferences and cognitive feedback. This mechanism will add to the development of an integrative theoretical framework. In turn, our minimal-self tests, kinematic data from movements in complex movement tasks and virtual reality setups can promote the turing test, which can be tested in robots.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• Subproject of: SPP 2134: The active self
• International Connection: Canada, Italy
• Cooperation Partners: Professorin Dr. Caterina Pesce; Professor Dr. Nikolaus F. Troje