Date: Thursday, 22nd January, 4:00 pm (Warsaw time)
Join online: zoom link
When Words Move Bodies: Toward a Theory of “Introjection”
Abstract
That motor learning demands bodily exploration is beyond dispute. Yet master teachers often also rely on something seemingly abstract: metaphors, imagery, and the use of verbal cues that shouldn’t work if the body learns only by doing. Sense-making here needs to unfold at the intersection of embodied-enactive, conceptual, and symbolic processes, a complex phenomenon we have dubbed“introjection” (Kimmel et al., 2024). We begin this talk by introducing different varieties of the phenomenon (e.g., creative exploration; practice facilitation; technique specification) and by rounding up various frequent sense-making difficulties learners report, which are instructive because they point to a complex set of success requirements. We then turn to modeling options, advocating a process model in which words and the body engage with one another (often recursively over time), and in doing so combine dynamic operations such as moving the body, experimenting with imagery, refocusing attention, or contextually re-interpreting the words. The general aim here is to frame introjection as a “multi-channel” sense-making process that integrates different resources variously described by cognitive linguistics, body phenomenology, enactivism, and ecological approaches. All of these fields point to relevant mechanisms, but each lacks sufficient power to explain the phenomenon as a whole. We conclude that an integrative approach to this or similarly complex cognitive phenomena calls for bridge building between different epistemologies on the spectrum of “4E” cognition (see Kimmel, in press). To provide a brief outlook on plans for the future, we will present a proposal for empirically investigating introjection with a mixed methods design (micro-phenomenological interviews + motion capture).”
References:
Kimmel, M., Schneider, S. M., & Fisher, V. J. (2024). “Introjecting” imagery: A process model of how minds and bodies are co-enacted. Language Sciences, 102, 101602. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langsci.2023.101602
Kimmel, M. (2026). The dynamic entanglement of bodily and cognitive aspects of skill. Assimilation or dynamic coalescence? Acta Psychologica.