The Feeling of Embodiment by Glenn Carruthers

Author:Glenn Carruthers
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030141677
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

4.4 Off-Line Body Representations as Prototypes in the Conceptual Space Defining the ‘Usual’ Body

The central distinguishing feature of the model I present in this paper is the off-line body representation (first presented in Carruthers, 2008b; but see also De Preester & Tsakiris, 2009; Tsakiris, 2010) and the process of matching on-line and off-line body representations. On the model being put forward here, the off-line body representation is required for the sense of embodiment to be elicited for a perceived body. It plays a key role in the formation of the RHI. In order to understand this model, therefore, we need to spend some time understanding this kind of representation, in particular its representational content and how such content is matched to an on-line body representation.

In order to understand the computational work being done by such representations we need to know the representational content of off-line and on-line representations. On-line representations are thought to represent the current state of the body such as the orientation of the limbs and head, what action the body is currently performing and the like. In contrast, off-line body representations are thought to represent the body as it is usually including, for example, a generic body plan or perhaps even the actions afforded by the body (Carruthers, 2008a, pp. 1322–1323; 2008b, pp. 1305–1308).5

Here I present the hypothesis that off-line body representations are points corresponding to prototype body arrangements within a particular conceptual space . Each point in this space represents a possible arrangement of one’s own body, with the distance between these points corresponding to the similarity between the represented arrangements. At this stage the way distance between points is defined is not known, and cannot be known a priori. The space forms a region of what we may call ‘body space ’, a conceptual space within which points represent bodies regardless of whether or not they are one’s own. At least one point in this space will represent a prototype or ‘typical’ arrangement of one’s own body.6 Such points constitute off-line body representations. The distance from this point to the point representing the body on-line , as it is now, corresponds to the similarity between the current arrangement of the body and a prototypical arrangement.

On-line body representations are also points in this space . A particular arrangement of a body is represented on-line when the corresponding point in this conceptual space is occurrently elicited. On-line body representations are thereby concrete particular vehicles, whereas off-line body representations are abstract points in this space . They need never be realised. Indeed they might not represent any actual body arrangement (Gärdenfors, 2000, p. 87). It is the on-line representations which are actually tokened.

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