Academic Centre
Robert Blumberg Distinguished Lecture in Cognitive Science
by Professor Gustaf Gredebäck
Uppsala University, Sweden
January 21, 2025 (17:00 Riga time)
The lecture will be at Museum of Anatomy (9 Kronvalda boulevard )
Title of the Lecture:
How hands shape the mind
Abstract
In this presentation I will explore how manual actions, that is, actions performed with hands and arms, such as reaching, grasping, and manipulating objects, shape the mind. Based on recent empirical research, I will highlight four embodied developmental pathways that solve unique challenges infants and children face during development: I) Co-opted motor simulation allows action anticipation. II) Interactive specialisation allows executive control to emerge from reaching and grasping. III) Active exploration and IV) error-based learning facilitate cognition and perception. These pathways exemplify how infants use manual actions and the underlying neural processes controlling actions to structure the world, develop cognitive capacities, and to learn from interactions with the physical and social world.
Prof. Gustaf Gredebäck is a developmental psychologist who has made significant and groundbreaking discoveries and development of methods in variety of areas including infant’s cognitive, social, and emotional development. A particular focus of his research is the analysis of child’s active, intentional and interactional explorations that scaffold development.
Another focus in prof. Gredebäck’s work is research on children growing up in war, with parents suffering from mental health problems, or in societies in transition. Finally, development in different other cultures outside of Western, Educated, Industrial, Rich, and Developed (WEIRD) world is among the core topics of prof. Gredebäck.
Prof. Gredebäck’s work has significantly shaped the research on eye tracking in infancy. Additionally, he has substantially contributed to the understanding of pupillometry (measurement and analysis of pupil diameter).
Professor G. Gredebäck is the Head of Uppsala Child and Baby Lab at Uppsala University and one of the most significant Cognitive Scientists and psychologists in Sweden and Scandinavia.
Lecture is supported and funded by Robert Blumberg, the honorary consul of the Republic of Latvia in Illinois, USA