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CONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS article

Front. Dev. Psychol.
Sec. Cognitive Development
Volume 2 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fdpys.2024.1449705
This article is part of the Research Topic Advances in Metacognition and Reflection View all 4 articles

Beyond the mirror: An action-based model of knowing through reflection

Provisionally accepted
Jedediah Allen Jedediah Allen 1*Robert Mirski Robert Mirski 2Mark H. Bickhard Mark H. Bickhard 3
  • 1 Bilkent University, Ankara, Türkiye
  • 2 Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Toruń, Pomeranian, Poland
  • 3 Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Epistemic reflection involves the creation of qualitatively new knowledge. Different models have been proposed to account for new knowing through reflection that have typically been grounded in an information-processing framework. However, there are in-principle arguments that information-processing approaches preclude the emergence of new representation altogether. Accordingly, any information-processing account of knowing through reflection is plagued by emergence issues. After discussing some of these emergence issues for four prominent models in the cognitive science literature, an alternative action-based model of representation and reflection is presented called interactivism. Interactivism’s model of representation, as grounded in action anticipations, serves as the foundational emergence needed to account for subsequent knowing through reflection. After introducing the interactivist models of representation and reflection through knowing levels, some of the implications for consciousness, enculturation, language, and developmental methodology are discussed.

    Keywords: Epistemic reflection, Action-based approach, Interactivism, emergent representation, interactive knowing, Enculturation, Language as interaction (Min.5-Max. 8)

    Received: 15 Jun 2024; Accepted: 29 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Allen, Mirski and Bickhard. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Jedediah Allen, Bilkent University, Ankara, Türkiye

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