One of our lab’s new research directions is theoretically framed by the notion of Participatory Sensemaking (PSM) as conceived by Hanne De Jaegher and Ezequiel Di Paolo. Traditionally, the investigation of social cognition has primarily focused on processes instantiated wholly within the individual mind/brain. In contrast, PSM focuses on emergence of social cognition out of the dynamic interactions between individuals. In our lab the studies being conducted within the PSM research program use collaborative real-world activities such as dance improvisation and food preparation as lenses to examine the processes by which meaning emerges from meaningful interactions. In the spirit of neurophenomenology, a research approach dedicated to combining rigorous use of first and third person methods, we use ‘objective’ measures indexing synchrony in movement patterns and physiology with in-depth first person reports of moment to moment experience. This project is an interdisciplinary collaboration with philosopher/cognitive scientist Hanne De Jaeger, biomedical engineer Stefanie Blain-Moraes, and dance artists Ivani Santana, at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, and Claire French, co-artistic director of Restless Productions, Vancouver.
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The food we eat, the stories we tell: An embodied approach to understanding the role of affective history in sensemaking
Guided by the framework of participatory sense-making (PSM), which has traditionally focused on dynamic interactions in real-time, this project explores how meaning arising from personal interactions that are rich with emotional and cultural importance can be shared with others through everyday activities. In line with our own and others’ work on how emotional learning in…
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Participatory sensemaking in dance improvisation
Using participatory sense-making as a guiding framework, this project situates itself within a shift in the study of social cognition away from individuals’ mental processes and toward interactional processes. It asks, what are some of the dynamic interactive processes by which co-constructed social meaning emerges? And in what way do these dynamics reflect subjective experience?…