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L. Elizabeth Crawford
Department of Psychology
University of Richmond
Richmond, VA 23173
804-287-6623
Email: lcrawfor@richmond.edu

            In Cognitive Science, knowledge is usually modeled as a set of abstract symbols that contain no sensorimotor or affective components.  Emotion and action have been viewed as irrelevant or even disruptive to the goal of understanding the mind.  However an emerging trend in philosophy, linguistics, neuroscience, and cognitive psychology is shifting focus away from the computer metaphor and toward a science of embodied cognitio n.  This approach views cognitio n as integrated with sensorimotor and affective processing and treats emotion as critical to the study of the mind.  In keeping with this approach, my research examines the critical role of emotion and sensorimotor experience in cognitive processes such as memory and categorization.  My students and I investigate the integration of visual-spatial, motoric, and affective experience in learning, memory, and evaluation.