EMBODIED PROBLEM SOLVING: A REVIEW OF EXPERIMENTAL PARADIGMS

Abstract

Recent studies of thinking increasingly often rely on Embodied cognition, a popular cognitive psychology approach. This approach provides ample opportunity to test new hypotheses and ask new questions about the mechanisms of problem solving. This article aims to systematize the existing experimental paradigms for testing hypotheses of this kind, especially those that describe the functional effects of motor activity on problem solving. The review analyzes the main experimental paradigms in this area, namely, the influence of previous motor and/or oculomotor activity on problem solving (when, before solving the main problem, the solver performs certain movements that represent a fragment of a future solution or are semantically related to it), the influence of concurrent motor activity on the process and result of the solution (when performed in parallel with the solution movement tasks have a significant impact on the process and/or result of the thought process), the influence of interactivity effects on the solution of the problem (when, due to the direct interaction with the problem material, subjects reduce the load on working memory and/or increase the success of the solution), the influence of the number of gestures on the solution (when the number of gestures of a certain type during the description of the found solution is positively correlated with successful solutions), as well as the influence of different modes of motor planning on the process of problem solving (when only one of its types – on-line planning (planning movement in the course of its execution) – positively affects the success of the solution).