Less-is-More and Embodiment—How the Body Simplifies Cognition

Less-is-more describes a principle underlying decision making. Embodiment, on the other hand, argues that the body plays an important role in processes that have classically been characterized as mental. We argue that decision making is facilitated by reducing the amount of mental information processing (less-is-more) through the exploitation of the constant stream of rich sensorimotor information (embodiment), a concept we call LIME. LIME argues that, via embodiment, information processing is “constrained” by and “off-loaded” into the body. Constraining involves the body reducing the input or generated options before they enter into mental information processing. Off-loading involves the body or the environment performing the information processing. LIME underlies cognition generally, but is most accessibly demonstrated in sport phenomena, and we use this domain to sketch out the breadth of this concept in four case studies. LIME connects first principles of cognition to real-life phenomena, providing explanatory insights into ecological rationality and frameworks explaining adaptive behavior.