222 A CREATIVE COGNITION
more developed schemas allow repre sen ta tions beyond immediate
appearance and thus anticipation of novel possibilities, as in math and
theories of science.
Th is is Piaget’s impor tant concept of refl ective abstraction. It refl ects
his fi ndings that knowledge can emerge from interaction among the sche-
mas to obtain a more abstract level, detached from immediate experi-
ence. One example is the formation of higher inclusion classes (e.g., fruit)
from simple concepts, such as apples, oranges, strawberries. Th e latter are
empirical abstractions, in that they form from what is directly experi-
enced. But the inclusive class demands a higher self- organ ization, over
and above what is experienced.
Another example is that of transitive inference. Th e conception that
object A, say, is bigger than object B, may be gained from direct empiri-
cal experience. Likewise with the experience of B being bigger than
object C. But appreciating that object A is necessarily bigger than object
C requires refl ective abstraction and the emergence of a new schema that
provides an impor tant system of logical thought.
Both examples demand abstraction of the more implicit structure, be-
yond what is available in direct experience or appearance (or in low- level
attractors representing experience of them). Th ey yield knowledge about
the world deeper than that in immediate experience and must have been
a tremendous boost to the evolution of predictability, and adaptability of
be hav ior, in all animals. Both examples have in fact been demonstrated
in nonhuman animals.
Fi nally, the assimilation of external structure into network co ali tions
also brings the outside world into the brain and cognition in ways not
usually envisaged. Th e system allows us to sense far more of the world
than is in current sense data, just as, in the visual system, we “see” far
more than any current image. Mark Johnson has called this “embodied
understanding.”^19 It “is not merely a conceptual/propositional activity
of thought, but rather constitutes our most basic way of being in, and
engaging with, our surroundings in a deep visceral manner.”
Of course it also takes cognition out into the world by providing much
more scope for adaptable action. Th e basic message is that cognitive sys-
tems provide a deeper synergy between the inside and the outside than is
usually imagined.
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