Introduction

This chapter focuses on the theories of distributed cognition, which posit that the human mind is not situated only in the brain, but is extended via the body out into the environment, in what Andy Clark has described as a "constant cognitive feedback loop. Clark sums up prediction as the means by which we "deal rapidly and fluently with an uncertain and noisy world”. A cognitive approach can help define the fundamental differences between ancient Greek drama and the theatre of the 20th and 21st centuries and offer us the means to explore the experiential elements of what made Greek drama so distinctive. In the fields of cognitive archaeology and ethnography, the practice of comparative social modeling has been used to learn more about ancient artifacts and the cultures that produced them. Absorption, a state of focused immersion involving a narrowing of concentration and attention, which can in turn lead to greater feelings of empathy.