edited by Wolfgang Tschacher (University of Bern, Switzerland) & Jean-Pierre Dauwalder (University of Lausanne, Switzerland)

Table of Contents (58k)
Foreward (70k)
Introduction (194k)

The shared platform of the articles collected in this volume is used to advocate a dynamical systems approach to cognition. It is argued that recent developments in cognitive science towards an account of embodiment, together with the general approach of complexity theory and dynamics, have a major impact on behavioral and cognitive science. The book points out that there are two domains that follow naturally from the stance of embodiment: first, coordination dynamics is an established empirical paradigm that is best able to aid the approach; second, the obvious goal-directedness of intelligent action (i.e., intentionality) is nicely addressed in the framework of the dynamical synergetic approach.

• Intelligent Behavior: A Synergetic View (H Haken)
• Grounded in the World: Developmental Origins of the Embodied Mind (E Thelen)
• Cognitive Coordination Dynamics (S Kelso)
• What is Coordinated in Bimanual Coordination? (F Mechsner & W Prinz)
• Cognition in Action: The Interplay of Attention and Bimanual Coordination Dynamics (J J Temprado)
• A Synergetic Approach to Describe the Stability and Variability of Motor Behavior (K Witte et al.)
• The Role of Synchronization in Perception-Action (T-C Chan et al.)
• A Mean-Field Approach to Self-Organization in Spatially Extended Perception-Action and Psychological Systems (T Frank & P J Beek)
• Self-Organizing Systems Show Apparent Intentionality (W Tschacher et al.)
• The Embodiment of Intentionality (S Jordan)
• Cognitive Science, Representations and Dynamical Systems Theory (P Haselager)
• Self-Steered Self-Organization (F Keijzer)
• Brain Dynamics: Methodological Issues and Applications in Psychiatic and Neurologic Diseases (L Fezard)
• SIRN (Synergetic Inter-Representation Networks), Artifacts and Snow's Two Cultures (J Portugali)
• Dynamical Systems Theory: Application to Pedagogy (J Abraham)