Contentful skills: Procedural memory and the representational challenge to non‐representational cognition

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Authors: Krystyna Bielecka, Marcin Miłkowski
Cited by: 1
References: 75

Abstract

Procedural memory—the system underlying skills and habits—is inherently contentful. We argue, drawing on standard accounts of intentionality, that it exhibits a world‐to‐mind direction of fit and is governed by satisfaction conditions that normatively guide skilled action. Four convergent arguments support this: the conceptual structure of procedural memory's directive function; the phenomenon of misrepresentation in apraxia; the constitutive role of contentful goal states in motor control models; and the semantic interface between verbal instruction and action. This challenges anti‐representationalist accounts in embodied cognition and philosophy of memory—including radical enactivism and the skilled intentionality framework—and supports a unified representationalist framework for embodied agency.

Fields of Study & Subjects

Embodied and Extended Cognition Action Observation and Synchronization Child and Animal Learning Development

Publication details

Journal / source
Mind & Language
Publisher
Wiley
Publication date
28 July 2026
Language
EN