Tool Use Is Just a Trick of the Mind

TwistedOne151 writes to recommend a ScienceNOW article describing the work of a team of Italian neurobiologists who have found the roots of the capacity for tool use in the primate brain: the brain treats the tool as part of the body. The experiment as described is passing clever.

Comments

Define:tool

[Zekasu]

So, essentially, a computer is an extension of my body?

Concievably, input, output, and expected responses could be considered an extension, but what about thought process? Is this similar to the human body considering a crutch as an extension of the body while walking?

Somehow, I sense that "tool" is too broad of a word, or perhaps too distorted of a definition, to be used when referring to, well, tools. If I give a thousand monkeys one typewriter each, does that typerwriter become considered as an extension? I can understand a pair of pliers being considered a mechanical extension to the hand, but what about the actually pressing of keys?

Re:Define:tool

[Fourier404]

I'd like to see the differences when you physically aim a gun and when you move the mouse while playing bf2.

Re:Define:tool

[AKAImBatman]

So, essentially, a computer is an extension of my body?

Sure, why not? For a trained operator, the keyboard and mouse become second nature. Staring at the monitor, the operator learns to block out visual information outside of the screen. Many users even use headphones, further tying them to the machine.

I can tell you that when my fingers dance across the keyboard, I'm not really putting a whole lot of thought into the keyboard. Instead, I'm putting thought into the words I'm attempting to type, or the command I'm attempting to communicate with the combination of keys.

Mental tools...

[Zarf]

So, physical tool use in primates is result of a trick of the mind... activating and training certain regions of neurons to perceive the new tool as part of the body... what does it mean that I use a computer which is a mental tool? Does that mean my psyche is extended into my computer? If so, it would explain a great many things...

I feel like I sort of knew this already. It make sense. In a video game I don't think about smashing "A", "B", or "X", "Y" I just think about the action I want to perform and I hit the right keys... after a learning period. Same with touch typing. I just think about characters and they come out of the keyboard. But, I can't think without a computer anymore... or at least if I don't have one I feel like part of my mind has gone missing. Perhaps it's the part that can spell? I mean I've got the firefox spell checker plugin or else this post would be full of badly spelled words.

But it is...

[spiritraveller]

It should be no surprise that the brain treats tools as an extension of the body, because that's exactly what tools are.

There is nothing that we do which does not affect the outside world. And there is nothing we do which the outside world does not affect. The illusion is in the initial perception of separateness and not in the realization that it is part of us.

Treating the world as an extension of ourselves is a form of enlightenment, not trickery.

Re:Actually not true

[AKAImBatman]

Competent driving requires time and practice...repetitive situations that are eventually rehearsed subconsciously (to the point of prediction) that make it appear that the driver is adept, when in actuality, there is a specific percentage of basic scenarios that have simply been memorized.

Indeed. Just like competent walking or running requires time and practice. Repetitive situations that are eventually rehearsed subconsciously (to the point of prediction) that make it appear that the individual is adept at locomotion, when in actuality, there is a specific percentage of basic scenarios that have simply been memorized.

Yet I can still attempt a long jump or attempt to skid my car in the snow without the memorized steps. I won't be very good at either one my first time out, but I'll "get the hang of it" after a while.

You can't take a driver used to a sub-compact and expect them to apply their familiarity with a small sedan to a large tractor-trailer, as an example.

Hey, you try waking up the next morning a foot taller and 150 pounds heavier, and lets see how well you take your first steps, Mister! ;-)

This is old news....

[gerald626]

Just ask any musician.