This dissertation investigated the meanings students from beginner jazz ensembles ascribe to learning jazz improvisation through Dalcroze-inspired activities. Over the course of ten weeks, students from three respective beginner jazz ensembles were exposed to Dalcroze-inspired activities as the medium for learning to improvise. The sessions were held on a weekly basis, facilitated by the researcher. Hermeneutic phenomenology guided the research procedures. In-depth interviews, personal reflections, participant reflection essays as well as video recordings were the methods of data collection. Through the use of Atlas.ti 7, the data were organized and analysed by means of coding and categorisation, which led to the identification of five themes. The five themes that emerged from the data analysis were: feeling the music in my body, supporting development as a jazz musician, building character, building relationships, and stimulating and motivating learning. This study provides an understanding of the connection between jazz improvisation and Dalcroze Eurhythmics as well as how students experience learning jazz improvisation through Dalcrozeinspired activities. Through this understanding this study proposes a more holistic approach to jazz improvisation teaching that can inform further research and application of Dalcroze Eurhythmics in jazz pedagogy. / MMus (Musicology), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

The sensorimotor theory is an influential, non-mainstream account of perception and perceptual consciousness intended to improve in various ways on orthodox theories. It is often taken to be a variety of enactivism, and in common with enactivist cognitive science more generally, it de-emphasises the theoretical role played by internal representation and other purely neural processes, giving theoretical pride of place instead to interactive engagements between the brain, non-neural body and outside environment. In addition to offering a distinctive account of the processing that underlies perceptual consciousness, the sensorimotor theory aims to offer a new and improved account the logical and phenomenological character of perceptual experience, and the relation between physical and phenomenal states. Since its inception in a 2001 paper by O'Regan and Noë, the theory has prompted a good deal of increasingly prominent theoretical and practical work in cognitive science, as well as a large body of secondary literature in philosophy of cognitive science and philosophy of perception. In spite of its influential character, many of the theory's most basic tenets are incompletely or ambiguously defined, and it has attracted a number of prominent objections. This thesis aims to clarify the conceptual foundations of the sensorimotor theory, including the key theoretical concepts of sensorimotor contingency, sensorimotor mastery, and presence-as-access, and defends a particular understanding of the respective theoretical roles of internal representation and behavioural capacities. In so doing, the thesis aims to highlight the sensorimotor theory's virtues and defend it from some leading criticisms, with particular attention to a response by Clark which claims that perception and perceptual experience plausibly depend on the activation of representations which are not intimately involved in bodily engagements between the agent and environment. A final part of the thesis offers a sensorimotor account of the experience of temporally extended events, and shows how with reference to this we can better understand object experience.

Sensor array calibration is a major problem in engineering, to which a biological approach may provide alternative solutions. For animals, perception is relative. The aim of this thesis is to show that the relativity of perception in the animal kingdom could also be applied to robotics with promising results. This thesis explores through various behaviours and environments the properties of homeostatic mechanisms in sensory cells. It shows not only that the phenomenon can solve partial failure of sensors but also that it can be used by robots to adapt to their (changing) environment. Moreover the system shows emergent properties as well as adaptation to the robot body or its behaviour. The homeostatic mechanisms in biological neurons maintain fi ring activity between predefi ned ranges. Our model is designed to correct out of range neuron activity over a relatively long period of time (seconds or minutes). The system is implemented in a robot’s sensory neurons and is the only form of adaptability used in the central network. The robot was fi rst tested extensively with a mechanism implemented for obstacle avoidance and wall following behaviours. The robot was not only able to deal with sensor manufacture defects, but to adapt to changing environments (e.g. adapting to a narrow environment when it was originally in an open world). Emergence of non-implemented behaviours has also been observed. For example, during wall following behaviour, the robot seemed, at some point, bored. It changed the direction it was following the wall. Or we also noticed during obstacle avoidance an emerging exploratory behaviour. The model has also been tested on more complex behaviours such as skototaxis, an escape response, and phonotaxis. Again, especially with skototaxis, emergent behaviours appeared such as unpredictability on where and when the robot will be hiding. It appears that the adaptation is not only driven by the environment but by the behaviour of the robot too. It is by the complex feedback between these two things that non-implemented behaviours emerge. We showed that homeostasis can be used to improve sensory signal processing in robotics and we also found evidence that the phenomenon can be a necessary step towards better behavioural adaptation to the environment.

Using the psychological concepts of Theory of Mind and embodied cognition, the author explores and questions the traditional readings of Henry James's novel, The Golden Bowl, and its protagonist, Maggie Verver. Although the majority of critics view her as a positive character, James takes great effort to subvert her thoughts and mislead the reader. Despite lacking a modern technical vocabulary, James remains acutely aware of how human cognitive structures both process a text and function within a social setting.

Cette thèse s’inscrit dans une approche incarnée de la cognition sociale, selon laquelle la capacité à comprendre les états mentaux d’autres individus ne nécessite aucune inférence mais repose plutôt sur l’expérience immédiate des informations sensori-motrices perçues lors d’interactions sociales. D’importantes limites ont été formulées à l’encontre de cette approche. Il est notamment considéré qu’elle ne peut rendre compte de phénomènes dits de « hauts niveaux » de mentalisation, comme l’inférence d’intentions sociales, puisqu’il n’existe pas de relations systématiques entre ces dernières et les systèmes de la perception et de l’action. A travers les études de cette thèse, nous avons tout d’abord mis en évidence des altérations systèmatiques de la cinématique de mouvements volontaires selon les intentions sociales poursuivies. Précisément, lorsqu’une action est produite avec l’intention de servir à un partenaire, ses caractéristiques spatio-temporelles sont amplifiées. Ensuite, nous avons démontré que ces déformations cinématiques étaient fonction des propriétés physiques, et particulièrement de la hauteur des yeux du partenaire. Enfin, nos résultats montrent que ces déformations cinématiques sont implicitement traitées lors d’interactions sociales et qu’elles entraînent l’inférence spontanée d’intention sociale. De façon intéressante, la capacité des participants à accéder à ces informations privées à partir de variations cinématiques était fortement liée à leurs capacités explicites de mentalisation. Ainsi, cette thèse fournit les premières évidences expérimentales soutenant la possibilité d’accéder spontanément aux intentions sociales d’autres personnes à partir de processus perceptifs et moteurs. / This thesis assumes a grounded approach to social cognition, which defends that our abilities to understand others’ mental states rely on our immediate experience of sensori-motor informations in social interactions and do not need any inference processes. Some critical theorethical limits have been addressed to this approach to social cognition. Typically, it is considered that this conception can not explain high order mentalization, as, for example, the inference of social intentions, because there are not systematic links between those cognitive constructs and the systems of perception and action. Through the studies of this thesis, we have in a first time showed that the kinematics of voluntary movements are influenced by the type of social intention that is endorsed by participants. Precisely, when an action is produced for a partner, its spatio-temporal characteristics are amplified. Then, we have demonstrated that these kinematic variations are influenced by the physical properties of the partner, and particularly by the eyes’ level. Finally, our results showed that these typical kinematic variations are implicitly processed during social interaction and that they can trigger spontaneous social intention attribution. Interestingly, the ability of participants to access others’ mental states from motor action variations is strongly related to their explicit mentalizing performances. In sum, this thesis provides the first experimental evidences supporting the possibility to spontaneously access to others’ social intentions from perceptive and motor processes.

Dentre os componentes e aspectos da linguagem teatral, destacam-se aqueles pertinentes à interpretação envolvendo diretamente a corporeidade. Gesto, movimento e ação participam decisivamente de um complexo prático-teórico na construção formativa e artística dos profissionais das artes cênicas. Entretanto, o uso habitual desses termos como expressões chaves, frequentemente ganham significados voláteis, referenciando fugazmente os fenômenos aos quais se relacionam. As experiências no terreno onde tais termos se transformam em conceitos desenhou o ângulo pelo qual foram tratadas suas articulações e, a partir delas, foram realizadas consultas a publicações que circularam por expoentes como Stanislavski, Grotowski, Brecht, Artaud, Delsarte, Dalcroze e Laban, bem como por recentes trabalhos dos estudos da gestualidade e da multimodalidade na comunicação face a face, da psicanálise fenomenológica e, no âmbito teatral, por autores como De Marinis, Renato Ferracini, Eugenio Barba e Patrice Pavis. Preconizamos o gesto, reconhecido como gesto poético no corpo do intérprete, como tema central de exame e ponderações e, em seu desdobramento, aspectos referentes à sua operacionalidade na construção cênica. No âmbito do teatro ocorre, com notória frequência, ou a negação do valor e da função cênica dos gestos, ou a reiteração de noções e métodos sacramentados sem fazê-los avançar ou, mais sintomaticamente, sequer são percebidos na encenação. Ponderar essa constatação requer a reinvenção de caminhos. Identificamos um hiato para o qual podem ser profícuas as contribuições e as experimentações dos estudos da gestualidade, não permeadas por posições estéticas e metodológicas específicas. A pesquisa pauta-se em fundamentos teóricos, epistemológicos e metodológicos da fenomenologia e da Gestalt para conduzir as mediações relacionadas ao assunto e um estudo de caso balizado na pesquisa qualitativa fenomenológica, propondo apresentar ponderações sobre a eficácia dos recursos e formulações dos estudos da gestualidade e da multimodalidade na comunicação face a face no cultivo da operacionalidade do gesto poético, considerando seu trânsito da interação cotidiana em direção à sua conformação cênica em diálogo com fundamentos do princípio poético do Gestus a partir de Brecht. Tal intersecção, até a conclusão deste estudo, ainda não havia sido explorada. O esforço vai na direção de promover uma abordagem do gesto poético em um contexto transdisciplinar, promovendo uma revitalização que não se restringe ao debate teórico, mas que invade a prática. Assim, um duto que percorre a produção de McNeill, Kendon e Müller, fornece, não apenas estruturas e provocações para análise, mas também, incita expedientes criativos com o gesto poético possíveis de serem desdobrados da condução de atividades no âmbito de pesquisas à maneira de Müller, que introduz e induz estímulos em situações a serem observadas, registradas e analisadas. Assim, nos afinamos com a noção de nos deixarmos afetar por aquilo que está diante de nós e que nos habita como fonte do que desejamos laborar como artistas da cena. Esse reconhecimento convoca, mais do que a noção de treinamento, uma formação para a sensorialidade ao entender que o corpo, no fenômeno artístico, não pode ser apenas objeto, mas tem que se constituir como sujeito em sua totalidade. / Within the components of the theatrical language and its aspects, stand those more pertinent to the interpretation involving directly the corporeity. Gesture, movement and action participate decisively on a practice-theorist complex on the formational and artistic construction of the performing arts professional. However, the habitual uses of such terms as key expressions, frequently gain volatile meanings, fleetingly referring to the phenomena that it relates. The experiences in the terrain where these terms transform themselves in concepts, drawn the angle where the articulations were treated through and, from them, consults have been done to publications that circle through exponents such as Stanislavski, Grotowski, Brecht, Artaud, Delsarte, Dalcroze and Laban, likewise, some recent works on the gestures studies and the multimodality in face to face communication, from the phenomenological psychoanalysis and in the theatrical scope, by authors like De Marinis, Renato Ferracini, Eugenio Barba e Patrice Pavis. Advocate the gesture, known as poetic gesture on the performer body, as the central theme of examination and weights and, in your development, aspects referring to its operability in the scenic construction. Consider this statement requires a recreation of paths. We identify a hiatus where our contributions might be fruitful such as the experiments in the gestures studies, not permeated by specific aesthetic and methodological placements. The research is guided by theoretical, epistemological and methodological fundaments of the phenomenology and the Gestalt to conduct the mediation related to the subject and a study of case beaconed in the phenomenological qualitative research, proposing to present ponderations about the efficacy of the resources and formulations of the gestures studies and the multimodality in the face to face communication in the cultivation of the operability of the poetic gesture, considering its quotidian interaction transit in direction to its scenic conformation in dialogue with fundaments of the Gestus poetic principle according to Brecht. Such intersection, until the conclusion of this work, has not been explored yet. The effort goes on the direction to promote the approach of the poetic gesture in a transdisciplinary context, promoting a revitalization that do not restrict itself to the theoretical debate, but invades the practice. Therefore, a duct that courses the production of McNeill, Kendon and Müller, provides, not only structures and teases to analysis, but also incites creative expedients with the poetic gesture possible of being unfold of the conduction of activities in the scope of researches in the manner of Müller, which introduce and induce stimulations in situations that should be watched, registered and analyzed. Thereby, we become affine with the idea of letting us get affected by what is in front of us and resides as the source of what we wish to labor as artists in scene. This recognition convenes, more than the notion of training, a formation to the sensoriality when understands that the body, in the artistic phenomena, cannot be only the object, but has to self-constitute as a subject in its totality.

A field of research that is quickly becoming more prominent is the one related to embodied cognition, which states there is an important association between physical activity and cognition. However, research on the application of embodied cognition to education is still at its infancy. More research needs to be done to understand how motion can contribute to student learning, and even further, research is needed on how learning technologies might support physical activity while learning. This research sits at the intersection of embodied cognition, learning technologies, mobile devices, and mathematics education. It implements a novel learning technology platform created at WPI, called the Wearable Learning Cloud Platform (WLCP). Thanks to a child friendly app thats connect to the central web based system, the experience of elementary school children playing physically active games might be improved. This research also analyzes the importance of motor action in students’ math learning: By using three different conditions of a game called the Tangrams Race requiring different levels of physical activity (i.e. embodiment), we compared differences between fine and gross motor actions in regards to learning. Results indicated that physically active mobile games can and do improve math learning. Results also show marginal significant effect in favor of the physically active mobile games (p<0.1, Partial Eta Sq.=0.1) over traditional tutoring systems on a computer.

Dentre os componentes e aspectos da linguagem teatral, destacam-se aqueles pertinentes à interpretação envolvendo diretamente a corporeidade. Gesto, movimento e ação participam decisivamente de um complexo prático-teórico na construção formativa e artística dos profissionais das artes cênicas. Entretanto, o uso habitual desses termos como expressões chaves, frequentemente ganham significados voláteis, referenciando fugazmente os fenômenos aos quais se relacionam. As experiências no terreno onde tais termos se transformam em conceitos desenhou o ângulo pelo qual foram tratadas suas articulações e, a partir delas, foram realizadas consultas a publicações que circularam por expoentes como Stanislavski, Grotowski, Brecht, Artaud, Delsarte, Dalcroze e Laban, bem como por recentes trabalhos dos estudos da gestualidade e da multimodalidade na comunicação face a face, da psicanálise fenomenológica e, no âmbito teatral, por autores como De Marinis, Renato Ferracini, Eugenio Barba e Patrice Pavis. Preconizamos o gesto, reconhecido como gesto poético no corpo do intérprete, como tema central de exame e ponderações e, em seu desdobramento, aspectos referentes à sua operacionalidade na construção cênica. No âmbito do teatro ocorre, com notória frequência, ou a negação do valor e da função cênica dos gestos, ou a reiteração de noções e métodos sacramentados sem fazê-los avançar ou, mais sintomaticamente, sequer são percebidos na encenação. Ponderar essa constatação requer a reinvenção de caminhos. Identificamos um hiato para o qual podem ser profícuas as contribuições e as experimentações dos estudos da gestualidade, não permeadas por posições estéticas e metodológicas específicas. A pesquisa pauta-se em fundamentos teóricos, epistemológicos e metodológicos da fenomenologia e da Gestalt para conduzir as mediações relacionadas ao assunto e um estudo de caso balizado na pesquisa qualitativa fenomenológica, propondo apresentar ponderações sobre a eficácia dos recursos e formulações dos estudos da gestualidade e da multimodalidade na comunicação face a face no cultivo da operacionalidade do gesto poético, considerando seu trânsito da interação cotidiana em direção à sua conformação cênica em diálogo com fundamentos do princípio poético do Gestus a partir de Brecht. Tal intersecção, até a conclusão deste estudo, ainda não havia sido explorada. O esforço vai na direção de promover uma abordagem do gesto poético em um contexto transdisciplinar, promovendo uma revitalização que não se restringe ao debate teórico, mas que invade a prática. Assim, um duto que percorre a produção de McNeill, Kendon e Müller, fornece, não apenas estruturas e provocações para análise, mas também, incita expedientes criativos com o gesto poético possíveis de serem desdobrados da condução de atividades no âmbito de pesquisas à maneira de Müller, que introduz e induz estímulos em situações a serem observadas, registradas e analisadas. Assim, nos afinamos com a noção de nos deixarmos afetar por aquilo que está diante de nós e que nos habita como fonte do que desejamos laborar como artistas da cena. Esse reconhecimento convoca, mais do que a noção de treinamento, uma formação para a sensorialidade ao entender que o corpo, no fenômeno artístico, não pode ser apenas objeto, mas tem que se constituir como sujeito em sua totalidade. / Within the components of the theatrical language and its aspects, stand those more pertinent to the interpretation involving directly the corporeity. Gesture, movement and action participate decisively on a practice-theorist complex on the formational and artistic construction of the performing arts professional. However, the habitual uses of such terms as key expressions, frequently gain volatile meanings, fleetingly referring to the phenomena that it relates. The experiences in the terrain where these terms transform themselves in concepts, drawn the angle where the articulations were treated through and, from them, consults have been done to publications that circle through exponents such as Stanislavski, Grotowski, Brecht, Artaud, Delsarte, Dalcroze and Laban, likewise, some recent works on the gestures studies and the multimodality in face to face communication, from the phenomenological psychoanalysis and in the theatrical scope, by authors like De Marinis, Renato Ferracini, Eugenio Barba e Patrice Pavis. Advocate the gesture, known as poetic gesture on the performer body, as the central theme of examination and weights and, in your development, aspects referring to its operability in the scenic construction. Consider this statement requires a recreation of paths. We identify a hiatus where our contributions might be fruitful such as the experiments in the gestures studies, not permeated by specific aesthetic and methodological placements. The research is guided by theoretical, epistemological and methodological fundaments of the phenomenology and the Gestalt to conduct the mediation related to the subject and a study of case beaconed in the phenomenological qualitative research, proposing to present ponderations about the efficacy of the resources and formulations of the gestures studies and the multimodality in the face to face communication in the cultivation of the operability of the poetic gesture, considering its quotidian interaction transit in direction to its scenic conformation in dialogue with fundaments of the Gestus poetic principle according to Brecht. Such intersection, until the conclusion of this work, has not been explored yet. The effort goes on the direction to promote the approach of the poetic gesture in a transdisciplinary context, promoting a revitalization that do not restrict itself to the theoretical debate, but invades the practice. Therefore, a duct that courses the production of McNeill, Kendon and Müller, provides, not only structures and teases to analysis, but also incites creative expedients with the poetic gesture possible of being unfold of the conduction of activities in the scope of researches in the manner of Müller, which introduce and induce stimulations in situations that should be watched, registered and analyzed. Thereby, we become affine with the idea of letting us get affected by what is in front of us and resides as the source of what we wish to labor as artists in scene. This recognition convenes, more than the notion of training, a formation to the sensoriality when understands that the body, in the artistic phenomena, cannot be only the object, but has to self-constitute as a subject in its totality.

Micro-affordance effects have been reported for several different components of the reach-to-grasp action during both on-line and off-line visual processing. The presence of such effects represents a strong demonstration of the close relationship between perception, action, and cognition. In this thesis 7 experiments are described, which investigate different aspects of that relationship, with particular attention on the nature of object representations. In 5 behavioural experiments as well as in 1 Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) experiment a stimulus-response compatibility paradigm is employed to examine the presence of micro-affordance effects arising during language processing of object names. The power and precision component of the reach-to-grasp action is investigated in relation to the compatibility of an object for grasping with either a power or a precision grasp. Overall, the results of the experiments discussed in the present thesis suggest that: a) object representations activated during language processing of object names are able to potentiate actions arising from the component of the reach-to-grasp action under investigation; b) such representations might be more semantic or „propositional‟ than depictive in nature, therefore more related to stored semantic knowledge of the object and its associated actions than to its detailed visual properties; c) this semantic information about objects seems to be automatically translated into specific motor activity, even in the absence of any intention to act; d) finally, such semantic, non-visual motor potentiation seems to be rapid and relatively short lived.

As pessoas costumam fazer rotineiramente associações entre o afeto com as posições verticais, nas quais os objetos que estão no alto, muitas vezes, são considerados bons e o que estão em baixo são considerados ruins. O uso da metáfora, geralmente inconsciente, pode afetar a motivação do indivíduo para fazer avaliações dos preços dos produtos. O foco regulatório motivacional do indivíduo pode apresentar características que contribuam para restaurar a motivação, porque está dividido em um foco em promoção, que visa aproveitar oportunidades e se aproximar de ganhos e em um foco em prevenção que busca manter a vigilância para evitar resultados negativos e se afastar de perdas. O principal objetivo desta pesquisa foi analisar os efeitos da metáfora da verticalidade sobre a forma que os indivíduos efetuam as avaliações de preços, tendo o foco regulatório como moderador dessa relação. Foram elaboradas sete hipóteses, testadas com o uso de experimentos. A amostra total dos experimentos, contendo um estudo piloto e três estudos que avaliaram o modelo teórico proposto, foi de 522 participantes. Os dados foram analisados por meio da ANOVA twoway e da macro PROCESS de Hayes (Modelo 8, 2013). Os resultados mostram que o grupo de tratamento com os indivíduos que se consideram fisicamente alto e com foco em prevenção fizeram avaliações dentro do proposto para este estudo, quando comparados aos indivíduos que se consideram fisicamente baixo e foco em promoção. O primeiro grupo de tratamento mencionado atribuiu os menores preços aos produtos, exigiu descontos maiores para se deslocarem para outra loja em busca de um produto, consideraram o preço praticado por uma empresa mais injusto e, por fim, tiveram o melhor desempenho na avaliação de preço para conseguir um bom negócio. A principal contribuição desta tese é de que os indivíduos estão expostos diariamente a mudanças na autoestima por causa de simulações mentais da verticalidade, em que o corpo influencia os pensamentos desses indivíduos para tomada de decisão em relação a preços, e que o foco regulatório é capaz de atenuar tais efeitos. / People routinely make associations between affection and vertical positions, in which objects that is in up positiion are often considered good and those that is in down position are considered bad. The use of the metaphor, usually unconscious, can affect the individual\'s motivation to make product price assessments. The motivational regulatory focus of the individual can present characteristics that contribute to restore motivation, because it is divided into a focus on promotion, which seeks to seize opportunities and approach gains and a focus on prevention that seeks to maintain vigilance to avoid negative results and to avoid losses. The main goal of this research was to analyze the effects of the metaphor of verticality on the form that the individuals make the price evaluations, having the regulatory focus as moderator of this relation. Seven hypotheses were elaborated, tested with the use of experiments. The total sample of the experiments, containing a pilot study and three studies that evaluated the proposed theoretical model, was 522 participants. The data were analyzed through two way ANOVA and Hayes macro PROCESS (Model 8, 2013). The results show that the treatment group with those individuals who consider themselves to be physically high and focused on prevention made evaluations within the proposed for this study when compared to individuals who consider themselves physically low and focused on promotion. The first treatment group mentioned attributed the lowest prices to the products, demanded larger discounts to move to another store in search of a product, considered the most unfair price practiced by the company and, lastly, had the best performance in price evaluation to get a good deal. The main contribution of this thesis is that individuals are exposed daily to changes in self-esteem because of mental simulations of verticality, in which the body influences the thoughts of these individuals for decision-making in relation to prices, and that the regulatory focus is capable to mitigate such effects.