Embodied Cognition and the Possibility of Virtual Reality

This article was originally published on Medium on April 4, 2017 by Lindsay Portnoy

October 1938 holds several records in the history books: Superman made his comic book debut, in Oregon the world’s oldest dated footwear was discovered, and a radio show demonstrated the potential of embodied cognition on a grand scale:

“We interrupt our program of dance music to bring you a special bulletin from the Intercontinental Radio News. … I’m speaking from the roof of the Broadcasting Building, New York City. The bells you hear are ringing to warn the people to evacuate the city as the Martians approach. Estimated in last two hours three million people have moved out along the roads to the north, Hutchinson River Parkway still kept open for motor traffic.”

(“Halloween Episode.” H.G. Wells The War of the Worlds. Columbia Broadcasting System. Sunday October 30, 1938. Radio.)

Illustration by Alvim Corréa, from the 1906 French edition of H.G. Wells’ “War of the Worlds”.

Illustration by Alvim Corréa, from the 1906 French edition of H.G. Wells’ “War of the Worlds”.

Illustration by Alvim Corréa, from the 1906 French edition of H.G. Wells’ “War of the Worlds”.

What proceeds is, by now, a well-known radio event called The War of the Worlds. The Halloween edition was certainly crafted to elicit a bit more excitement than Wells’s other shows and and while it didn’t exactly create the wide-scale panic of urban legend, many across the nation did report feelings of terror as they felt they were under attack. Other viewers called local hospitals to see if they could donate blood while some called to either congratulate or berate CBS for broadcasting such an event on public radio. What is important in this experience is that our senses, in this case our ears, had driven people nationwide to action. The shared experience of this broadcast may have created the first ever experiment on embodied cognition.

Embodied Cognition: Then and Now

Embodied cognition is the theory that cognition is the interaction between the physical body and the mind. The idea of embodied cognition emerged from the field of philosophy in stark contrast to the extant thoughts put forth by Descartes. Descartes believed in the duality of the mind-body, proposing a dichotomy with the mind as a superior thinking tool and thus more reliable in deducing realities from life experiences that are encountered by the fallible body. Philosophers and psychologists argued against this position, suggesting that our bodily interactions inform our cognitive schema and are therefore not distinct but instead interdependent.

Simply stated, embodied cognition is the idea that our mind alone does not dictate our worldview but instead that our cognition is shaped by the relationship between our mind and our body to inform and navigate our world, make meaning from our environments, and ultimately to result in learning. Recall the last time you gave directions. You likely used your body to gesture about upcoming turns, indicate hallmarks along the route, and demonstrate the long straight path to take before the final turn towards your destination. Your knowledge was shared and even reinforced through the use your body’s actions.

Embodied cognition acknowledges that the mind and body are agents working together to make meaning of our experiences and many studies reinforce just how promising embodied cognition is for learning. Researchers from the University of Chicago (Cook, Mitchell, & Goldin-Meadow, 2008) found that simple gesturing in elementary students demonstrates knowledge not found in speech and can potentially change and improve their knowledge. When 3rd- and 4th-grade students explain how they solved math problems, the gestures they made to explain their processes demonstrates more knowledge of the concepts than their language implied. The ability of the child to embody their thought through gestures is yet another way in which embodied cognition allows learners to demonstrate and acquire knowledge.

In the classroom, teachers use embodied cognition whenever they invite students to interact with the environment whether through acting out historical events or conducting science experiments. These experiences not only help to secure knowledge for future but offer an engaging alternative to traditional instruction. Many tools exist to help teachers create experiences for their students including games and experiences that are both analog and digital, each harnessing the power of multi-sensory learning. But none of these tools seems as promising in delivering learning through embodied cognition as the new wave of technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR) where learners worldwide are able to interact with content in ways never before available.

Kid in VR headset.png

The Technology to Transform Learning

The active use of mind and body implied in embodied cognition can be easily enacted through virtual reality. From gaming to education, VR experiences have increased exponentially during the past year. These experiences have allowed players to jump into a video game and interact with friends standing miles away while also transporting a classroom of students to the Great Wall of China on a Google Expedition virtual tour.

VR provides a playground to learn and explore and is a template for learning across a variety of domains with depth and interaction that work to ensure meaningful learning experiences and secure knowledge acquisition. For example, an ideal high school science classroom is filled with textbooks, beautiful illustrations and diagrams in a print rich environment for teaching about the systems of a human cell. But imagine if after reading about a cell, a student enters a virtual environment where they must push past the membrane gates and get their first glimpse of the prominently featured nucleus that is flanked by the endoplasmic reticulum sending proteins to the Golgi complex while the powerful mitochondria work tirelessly to create energy to fuel the cells.

What if after reading a passage, your English lit teacher asks you to put on your VR headset as you to take on the role of Beowulf going on his epic journey, defeating Grendel and ultimately crowned king of the Geats. When you see the epic poem played out in real time with a steady crescendo towards defeating the dragon, you are Beowulf. You are embodied in the experience and it becomes contextualized in a way that watching on the screen or reading in black and white simply cannot impress.

In which space are you more likely to fully grasp both the nuance and the gestalt of the cell’s work or the epic battle?

Current research by Disney shows that virtual reality technology is becoming so seamless, it can interact with and even replicate typical physical world behaviors like catching a ball. In a recent study, researchers aimed to determine if different presentations of a virtual ball being thrown would influence the player’s ability to catch the physical ball being thrown. The simulation showed either (1) a virtual ball tracking the real ball, (2) the real ball’s predicted trajectory, or (3) a target for where the ball would land. Impressively, results from this study show 95% of all balls were caught in the condition that matched the virtual ball tracking the real ball (1). What is more, when the ball was not rendered and instead a simple target (3) was presented, the catcher’s response became less typical of a catching response and instead to an estimation task where they had to correct for the missing visual input of the missing ball. A once fluid and natural movement appears erratic and uncertain. This small study is a huge leap towards creating more immersive, dynamic, and interactive VR environments.

Exciting work from the powerhouse Schell Games is also tapping into the transformative nature of VR experiences. Their virtual reality game I Expect You To Die simulates an escape-the-room scenario with the player as a secret agent and won best overall VR experience at the 2015 Proto Awards. Perhaps the most exciting part of their work is in games such as SuperChemVR or Water Bears VR which teach important skills from spatial reasoning to chemistry in an innovating and deeply engaging way. If this is the classroom of the future, I’d like a seat at the front!

To be sure, VR is not a panacea for education but instead a supplemental tool to deepen understanding and engage learners in a whole new way. A textbook and lecture alone cannot provide the depth and meaning of a physical walk through a working cell. But new technologies allow students to see these systems in action and provide greater understanding of important concepts. The experience of walking through the cell becomes embodied through the senses and heightens the understanding of the working cell.

To Infinity and Beyond

What we learn from The War of the Worlds, the research on embodied cognition, and emerging research on VR is that the environment is a powerful tool from which we can create meaningful experiences that can effect great changes in our ability to perceive and understand the world around us. Great teachers are already preparing our children to see the interconnectedness of content, make connections to their experiences, and to step into an active learning environment. The tools of the future should be there to support their great work and scaffold learning and inquiry on a deeper level.

If used well, tools such as virtual reality will allow learners to navigate through new worlds, help teachers create innovative learning experiences, and cultivate empathy for those around them while securing content knowledge that will fuel a lifetime of exploration and discovery.




Practice makes perfect and five other adages we should ditch in the new year

This article was originally published in Medium on December 27, 2017 by Lindsay Portnoy

Lean in, practice mindfulness, and don’t forget to be radical! Catch phrases like these are powerful calls to action that often provide solid strategies for those seeking self improvement. And while there’s nothing wrong with catch phrases or their longer cousin the adage, when presented as a ‘short statement expressing a general truth’ they often shackle us rather than set us free.

Here are the five adages that I implore of you to please ditch this year with suggestions for what could possibly replace them:

  1. Practice makes perfect.

This nugget of ‘wisdom’ suggests that if only we tried hard enough we would actually achieve perfection. There are at least two issues with this frame: one, that there is some singularly agreed upon vision of perfection for which we all aspire, and two, that if only you tried harder you would get there.

Thinking like this is prevalent in classrooms and boardrooms and frankly it is detrimental to progress. Yes, we should all practice. We should practice so much that we become so great at something that we can teach others and in the process make the world a better place. But this ideal of perfection feeds into the nonsense that there is always a single correct answer (looking at you standardized test). It does nothing to help people prepare for a future that is as of yet uncertain.

Instead let’s agree to adopt a new adage this year to inspire our friends, loved ones, and colleagues to work hard with flexibility by saying: You can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.


2. Too many cooks spoil the broth.

This one reminds me of those dreaded group projects back in middle school before teachers began assigning roles so each of us had a specific purpose in our shared work. And this is where this adage is wrong. If we’re all cooking it means we’re all involved. Multiple cooks means multiple perspectives. Multiple perspectives require active listening, collaboration, and consensus to ensure that everyone’s views are heard. Many cooks actually ensure that many voices are heard, if we know how to listen.

Perhaps if we meaningfully encourage more people to take part in shared work in boardrooms, shoprooms, or classrooms we can begin to build the skills that are necessary to move us out of the divisiveness we see worldwide?

Let’s encourage more cooks, each with a sense of purpose and shift to using the adage: Two heads are better than one. Because after all, we are better together.


Virgil quote with image via Karl Wimer

Virgil quote with image via Karl Wimer

3. Fortune favors the bold.

Be bold! The squeaky wheel gets the grease! Surely my Yiddish grandmother authored this one. And yes, speaking up for what you believe is essential, especially when your soup is cold. But it’s also important to relay the message we learned from Horton that sometimes the smallest voice carries the most powerful message.

When looking at reformers or change agents I have to wonder: are the ones making the demands the ones whose lives will be most changed as a result of these changes? Whose voices are heard and whose are silenced?

Working together to support those whose voices are silenced we can adopt a new adage: A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Remembering that weak links are not synonymous with individuals being weak but instead those are the voices and experiences that must be heard in order to build a better future for all of us.

Image via Dawn of the Lead

Image via Dawn of the Lead

4. Beggars can’t be choosers.

This is yet another saying that conjures up memories of bubbe. At her house, this meant the mandatory eating of gefilte fish lest you’re later refused babka. But this is another adage which reeks of the -isms plaguing our current beliefs, limiting our ability to choose and paralyzing progress.

Sure, we often tell our children to finish their broccoli before getting dessert but where this adage takes on heavier baggage is when we imply that someone does not have a choice. Settling, whether for a job or a partner or a even for a say in local government, is never an option.

As an alternative perhaps we adopt a reflective stance and: Do unto others as you’d have done to you. The ability to choose is essential for a sense of purpose life, but taking the perspective of others makes our purpose more meaningful.


Female Sisyphys by MSKeller

Female Sisyphys by MSKeller

5. When the going gets tough, the tough get going.

This suggests that a strong person works harder to push past challenges or that anyone can pull themselves up by the bootstraps to achieve anything. This is one of the most offensive, inaccurate, and most false narratives prevalent today. Theories such as grit, cited as encouragement for our children and ourselves to simply try harder, completely disregard the context in which people work and live.

If you measure success by who is able to provide for themselves and their families, it is less about hard work and more about the giant shoulders upon which you are perched. I don’t mean to discount the hard work of every generation, but when you don’t start out in the red you’re already ahead.

While it is true that hard work is essential to success, so too is collaboration. Which is why this year we should ditch this tired saying and instead proudly share that: A house divided against itself cannot stand.

Ditching these five idioms for their more productive counterparts may begin to shine a light on the real work that must be done to truly set us free.

“How to attract and hold influence by power” and other definitions…

This article was originally published in Medium on October 11, 2017 by Lindsay Portnoy

Of Merriam-Webster’s seven definitions for the word engage, six include cunning attempts or calls to action while one suggests effortful and sustained action. The definitions alone bring to mind images of battlefields, exam rooms, or trust falls, just the hodgepodge of actions we attribute to the word, but are such elaborate physical activities required for one to be engaged?


Barbaric Yawp L.A. Street Art cc Mark Robinson

Barbaric Yawp L.A. Street Art cc Mark Robinson

From education to advertising, medicine to human resources, engagement is operationalized distinctly as a term, a tool, and a way to measure sustained action. Herein lies the potential for operationalizing yet another buzzword that may hold great potential for informing practice in a variety of industries, if only we could agree on metrics worth measuring.

Consultants struggle to explain to their clients that measuring effort rather than impact is fruitless, while human resource managers grapple with measuring implicit affect to determine if employees feel like an integral part of their company. In higher education, metrics are criticized if they do not encapsulate the faculty’s ability to work within under-resourced communities, encourage wider industry collaboration, and make an impact on public policy.

According to Forbes, “engaged employees lead to higher service, quality, and productivity, which leads to…higher customer satisfaction, which leads to increased sales (repeat business and referrals), which leads to higher levels of profit, which leads to higher shareholder returns (i.e., stock price).”

Sounds like the holy grail of measurements, right? If we measure engagement as ‘doing’ something how do you know it was done? Why does it matter? What is engagement?

For all the talk of ‘engaging with people’ to impact change, a critical question remains: is engagement simply an action or is it something that effectively changes the actor?

That was a trick question of course, because I would argue that engagement is an action that changes the actor resulting in an observable change. Simply stated: engagement is only meaningful if it translates into measurable outcomes.

Engagement should result in a change in behavior, an action that cultivates learning. Learning can be tying a shoe, recalling a fact, applying a theorem, or constructing a space station.

Measure learning and you’ll likely indirectly measure engagement.

The indirect piece is key because engagement looks different depending on the actor but it results in the same outcome: a change in behavior, thinking, or doing. More on that later.

From the classroom to the boardroom, measuring engagement means measuring learning. In a weekly status meeting a team of advertising execs discusses approaches for a new marketing campaign. At another firm, execs conduct independent due diligence on campaigns from the past year to identify attributes of successfully implemented campaigns and report back on a Slack channel. Both groups are engaged but it looks different.

Similarly, you may walk into a classroom where a seasoned English educator is giving a talk on Whitman’s poetry and you might see 27 students silently faced forward entranced or are their eyes glazed over? Walk into a similar classroom and groups of students are actively discussing Hawthorne’s purpose in The Scarlet Letter, are the students moving their bodies more engaged than the students listening intently?

Is one group more engaged than the other? It depends. How much did their behavior change as a result of the experience?

Did one group of execs determine a better approach than the other? Did one group of students demonstrate deeper learning about the content?

While one group may look more active than the other, that does not mean their minds were equally vested in the activity, that they were more or less engaged.

To measure engagement you must know the objective of the activity: to identify the best marketing plan or to interpret the meaning of a great work of art. Once you know the objective you must measure it to determine if the type of activity was truly engaging.

Barbaric yawps and trust falls aside, to be engaged is only productive if as a result there is a change in behavior, affect, or knowledge. So what does productive engagement look like?