{
  "handle": "FourECognition",
  "ref": "FourECognition#5a7e",
  "stub": "5a7e",
  "semaId": "sema:FourECognition#mh:SHA-256:5a7e03fd93397b85736b14b6ae763c3d50bf63125fcebac8490066904e2ed7cf",
  "layer": "Mind",
  "category": "Inference",
  "gloss": "Cognition is spread over brain, body, environment and action, and the boundary of a cognitive system is set by its couplings, not by the skull",
  "mechanism": "A cognitive process draws on four non-neural contributions. Embodied: the body's shape, senses and stakes shape what the system can perceive and do, as in an {{embodied_consequent_agent}}. Embedded: structure in the environment carries part of the load, so the internal process can be simpler. Extended: when an external resource is reliably available, easily accessed and trusted, it becomes part of the process rather than a support for it, as the architecture around a model does in {{harness_as_architecture}}. Enactive: what counts as significant is brought forth through the system's own activity and its need to stay viable, as in {{active_inference_homeostasis}}. Together these turn the question \"where does cognition happen?\" into \"which couplings does this process depend on, and which does it consist of?\"",
  "invariants": [
    "The process works differently, or not at all, when the body, the environment or the action loop is removed",
    "An external resource counts as part of the process only while it stays reliably available, easily accessed and trusted",
    "Significance is defined relative to the system's own viability, not only by an outside observer",
    "The boundary of the system is stated explicitly for each claim"
  ],
  "failureModes": [
    "Coupling mistaken for constitution: a tool is counted as part of the mind",
    "Skull-bound bias: offloaded or environmental work is overlooked and attributed to the agent alone",
    "Removing a resource believed to be external silently breaks the cognitive process",
    "The four Es used as one label while their claims contradict each other, e.g. extended functionalism versus anti-representational enactivism",
    "Loop cut: a frozen, offline model is analysed as if it had a body and a world"
  ],
  "ring": 1,
  "tier": 2,
  "aliases": {
    "harness_as_architecture": "HarnessAsArchitecture",
    "active_inference_homeostasis": "ActiveInferenceHomeostasis",
    "embodied_consequent_agent": "EmbodiedConsequentAgent"
  },
  "buildsOn": [
    {
      "handle": "HarnessAsArchitecture",
      "type": "references",
      "alias": "harness_as_architecture",
      "url": "/knowledge-graph/HarnessAsArchitecture/",
      "json": "/knowledge-graph/HarnessAsArchitecture.json"
    },
    {
      "handle": "ActiveInferenceHomeostasis",
      "type": "references",
      "alias": "active_inference_homeostasis",
      "url": "/knowledge-graph/ActiveInferenceHomeostasis/",
      "json": "/knowledge-graph/ActiveInferenceHomeostasis.json"
    },
    {
      "handle": "EmbodiedConsequentAgent",
      "type": "references",
      "alias": "embodied_consequent_agent",
      "url": "/knowledge-graph/EmbodiedConsequentAgent/",
      "json": "/knowledge-graph/EmbodiedConsequentAgent.json"
    }
  ],
  "usedBy": [],
  "sources": {
    "research": [],
    "works": [],
    "homePage": false
  },
  "url": "/knowledge-graph/FourECognition/",
  "graphUrl": "/knowledge-graph#FourECognition",
  "directory": "/knowledge-graph/patterns.json"
}