Knowing Subjects: Cognitive Cultural Studies and Early Modern Spanish Literature

List of Abbreviations and Cognitive Terms

AI: Artificial Intelligence A model of the human mind that arose in the late 1950s that views the mind as mechanistic and likens it to a computer devoted to information processing. Contextualism The contextualist model describes cognition as simultaneous, parallel, networked, and interactive nonconscious processes. It is an updated version of the modularity model, based on the most recent advances in brain imaging technologies. Ecological Cognition The ecological model proposes an interactive model of evolved brain, individual psyche, and sociocultural environment. This model is embodied but antideterministic, and describes the hardwired and experiential aspects of cognitive functioning as interdependent and mutually sustaining. Immersion Cognitive models of reading propose immersion as a common but stigmatized form of excess engagement with fictional characters and story worlds, usually in response to leisure or genre fiction. Immersive reading practice is escapist; the reader does not maintain normative cognitive boundaries between reality and fiction. MI: Machiavellian Intelligence A specific form of mind reading, when advanced minds seek to understand mental processes, emotions, or beliefs in order to better deceive or manipulate others for material and/or social advantage. MR: Mind Reading The study of how humans living in complex social systems conceptualize the thoughts and rationales behind other people’s actions and use those insights to negotiate social relationships. MR enables us to interpret and predict actions, feelings, and motivations. Also known as Theory of Mind (ToM). MR has List of Abbreviations and Cognitive Terms ix x List of Abbreviations and Cognitive Terms been proposed as the cognitive activity unique to advanced primates that justifies our much larger brains. Modularity, modular mind A model proposed by Jerry Fodor in 1983, based on early scanning technologies, of cognition as modular rather than linear. Separate compartments (modules) of the brain work simultaneously but independently—at a nonconscious level—to process different types of information. p-response: Participatory Response Richard Gerrig’s model for a continuum of normative to anomalous responses to fiction. Responses range from expressing hopes and fear about the outcome, to gap-filling mental activities, to discussions about characters as if they were living humans, to trying to live like the characters in a story world. Radiant Ignition Elaine Scarry studies the cognitive processes by which readers bring to life the words on the printed page. Radiant ignition is the technique through which writers illuminate a scene or a figure part by part, like a spotlight moving across a space or object, to control readers’ visualization. SI: Social Intelligence An umbrella term for mentalist activities (ToM, MR, MI) when used for altruistic or cooperative rather than selfish or competitive purposes. ST: Simulation Theory One proposed model of MR. ST views mind reading as a form of imaginative identification, whereby we “place ourselves in others’ shoes” in order to project what people might think or how they might react. This model posits that humans anticipate the reactions of others based on our own reactions. ToM: Theory of Mind See Mind Reading (MR) above. The two terms are used interchangeably . xi List of Abbreviations and Cognitive Terms TT: Theory Theory One proposed model of MR. TT posits mind reading as a capacity that requires development of a set of theories concerning predictable patterns of human thought and reaction. This model requires the ability to represent and conceptualize someone else’s mental representations This page intentionally left blank. ...