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Embodied attention: Going beyond the office worker posture.

Created on 11 Aug 2026

Authors

Tatiana Hatukai, Martin H Fischer

Published in

Canadian journal of experimental psychology = Revue canadienne de psychologie experimentale. Aug 10, 2026. Epub Aug 10, 2026.

Abstract

Current cognitive theories cast attention as a perceptual selection mechanism, largely neglecting the role of the body. We advance an embodied account, proposing that hand position, posture and action readiness systematically shape attentional performance. After outlining the historical shift from selection for perception to selection for action, we sketch a grounded, embodied and situated account of attention. We then review evidence from classic paradigms (Posner, Eriksen, Egly, Stroop), showing that attention signatures (detection, interference, selection, control) are systematically modulated by action readiness, and argue that the traditional 'office-worker' posture underlying these paradigms may have shaped how attention itself has been theoretically conceptualized. We discuss how action-linked visual processes and bodily contributions to cognitive control account for attention modulation and address reliability and contextual challenges. Finally, we propose to integrate physiological measures, motor states and real-world contexts into future research on embodied attention with the aim of eventually reframing attention as a functional enactive process. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

PMID:
42574128
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 11 Aug 2026.

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