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Material Minds: Exploring the Interactions between Predictive Brains, Cultural Artifacts, and Embodied Visual Search

Project description

Largest ever ecological experiment on embodied visual perception

The EU-funded XSCAPE project will bring together a team from the areas of archaeology, vision science and cognitive philosophy to explore whether the worlds we build alter our own minds and how we process information. The ERC-funded team will investigate whether our buildings, roads and artefacts change patterns of thought and attention. Slated to conduct a series of 41 global case studies, the project will use a set of materials – from different cultures and old and new settings – to explore materiality-driven cognitive change. XSCAPE will use a new synergistic methodology that combines multiple real-world case studies with the latest visual neuroscience, and simple agent-based simulations.

Objective

Do the worlds we build alter our own minds and the ways we process information? Do the material structures of our settlements, buildings, roads, and artefacts actively change patterns of thought and attention, so that understanding change in these ‘material codes’ becomes part and parcel of understanding the emergence of the modern mind?

To answer these questions XSCAPE brings together a unique team from archaeology, vision science, and cognitive philosophy. Using a carefully curated set of materials, spanning a range of cultures and a wide sweep of historic and contemporary settings, we aim to test, for the first time, the hypothesis of materiality-driven cognitive change. To this end we will use a new synergistic methodology that combines multiple real-world case studies with state-of-the-art visual neuroscience, and simple agent-based simulations.

The practical core of the project comprises a series of 41 different world-wide case studies. Together, these will constitute the largest ecological experiment on embodied visual perception ever attempted. A successful Pilot Study (described in detail in the main text) using eye-tracking analysis as applied to the visual exploration of archaeological artefacts already demonstrates the scientific and practical feasibility of our approach. For the simulations, we will use the emerging paradigm known as ‘active inference’ which describes a principled means of linking perception, attention, and actions (including eye-movements) with cognitive change and learning. This will deliver insights into the fundamental principles that may be guiding materiality-driven cognitive change.

Using this unique combination of archaeological materials, visual neuroscience, and simulation- based studies, XSCAPE will deliver the first fully-integrated framework for understanding the potent yet ill-understood cycles by which we humans make and transform the landscapes, practices, and artefacts that make and transform our minds.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

ERC-SyG - Synergy grant

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) ERC-2020-SyG

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Host institution

AGENCIA ESTATAL CONSEJO SUPERIOR DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTIFICAS
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 6 378 868,75
Address
CALLE SERRANO 117
28006 MADRID
Spain

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Region
Comunidad de Madrid Comunidad de Madrid Madrid
Activity type
Research Organisations
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 6 378 868,75

Beneficiaries (3)

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