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143221

Face to face with an enactive approach

a sensorimotor account of face detection and recognition

Aaron Kagan

pp. 509-525

Abstract

The enactive approach to perception describes experience as a temporally extended activity of skillful engagement with the environment. This paper pursues this view and focuses on prosopagnosia both for the light that the theory can throw on the phenomenon, and for the critical light the phenomenon can throw on the theory. I argue that the enactive theory is insufficient to characterize the unique nature of experience specific to prosopagnosic subjects. There is a distinct difference in the overall process of detection (with respect to eye movement sequence) of familiar and unfamiliar faces in prosopagnosia; in contrast, normal subjects use the same scanning strategy when exploring both kinds of faces despite an obvious difference in qualitative character. In light of this limitation I outline a supplemental view basing sensorimotor contingencies upon the establishment and reaffirmation of regularities within the organism as it engages with the environment.

Publication details

Published in:

Torrance Steve (2007) Enactive experience. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 6 (4).

Pages: 509-525

DOI: 10.1007/s11097-007-9070-2

Full citation:

Kagan Aaron (2007) „Face to face with an enactive approach: a sensorimotor account of face detection and recognition“. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 6 (4), 509–525.