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Understanding human encounters goes beyond explaining musculoskeletal coordination: a review
1Laboratorio de Lenguaje, Interacción y Fenomenología, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile.
Cognition & Emotion
|January 23, 2023
Summary
Complex systems theory models interactions like human coordination. However, this framework overemphasizes physical aspects, neglecting the meaningful, expressive nature of human actions.
Area of Science:
- Social Sciences
- Complex Systems Theory
- Human Interaction
Background:
- Complex systems theory is a dominant framework for understanding interactional phenomena.
- Interpersonal coordination is a key area studied within this framework.
- Butler's paper applies complex systems theory to large-scale coordination, including human interactions.
Approach:
- Critically evaluates the application of complex systems theory to human interactions.
- Highlights the tendency of the theory to overemphasize physical aspects of coordination.
- Contrasts mechanical motion with expressive actions in human movement.
Key Points:
- Complex systems theory's language can lead to an overemphasis on physical similarities between human and natural systems.
- This focus risks reducing human movement to mere mechanical motion.
- The inherent meaningful and expressive dimensions of human actions are overlooked.
Conclusions:
- The application of complex systems theory to human interactions requires careful consideration of its limitations.
- There is a need to acknowledge the qualitative differences in human coordination beyond physical mechanics.
- Future research should integrate the meaningful dimension into models of human interaction.
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