ABSTRACT
In recent years, the term embodiment has appeared with increasing frequency in psychological discussions. Like many new terms, its meaning is not generally agreed upon, and what is implied by embodiment in one context does not always apply to another. Th e 34th Carnegie Symposium on Cognition defi ned embodiment as a “representation of the self in the world” and of the ability of animals to use a representation of their own bodies to aid in perceiving, understanding, and acting (this volume). Th ese approaches suggest that many of the internal representations we employ to understand the world are expressed with reference to the body, and that the body itself may sometimes serve as a medium of representation. In this sense, embodiment is seen as an important aspect of “cognition,” of the representational schemes with which we know our world.
