對于身體的不同理解促使認知心理學形成了不同研究取向。經典認知心理學視身體為不同于心智的生物物理實體。認知表征則成為溝通心智與包括身體在內的外在世界之間聯系的"橋梁"。在經典認知心理學那里,心智是一種運算,運算的內容則是認知表征。認知表征是符號性的、抽象的,與身體的構造和感覺—運動通道無關。身體似乎僅僅是認知表征的"載體"或"容器"。具身認知則強調了身體在認知過程中所發揮的關鍵作用。具身認知中的"溫和派"視身體為心智中的身體,認知在其根本上是一種身體經驗。因此,認知表征不是抽象的,而是身體格式的,是身體特定感覺–運動通道提供的具體身體體驗。心智是一種運算,但運算的內容不是抽象符號,而是具體的身體經驗。具身認知中的"激進派"則主張徹底拋棄"運算"和"表征"。在激進派那里,認知是被身體作用于世界的活動塑造出來的。認知是為了解決問題,而不是為了形成認知表征。基本的心智不涉及內容,換言之,基本心智過程不涉及認知表征。認知在本質上是一種具身的行動。

What is meant by "body" here? There are many understandings about what the human body is, which promote a variety of research programs in cognitive science in general and cognitive psychology in particular. The classical information-processing model of cognitive psychology treated the body as a biophysical substance that is different from the mind as a mental substance. Therefore, as a science of mind, the body has always been ignored and relegated to the position of a "physiological basis" of the mind. The classical cognitive psychology is founded on the idea that brain is something like a digital computer in which the physical structure of the brain is like a hardware, and the cognition is a software. In other words, the cognition was assumed as a computation of a computer. Usually, computation is understood as the rule-governed manipulation of representations, therefore, it requires the assumption that the mind contains some cognitive representations of aspects of the objective world that is independent of our perceptual and cognitive capacities. The cognitive representations are abstract symbols and they are amodal and exist independent of structures and functions of the body. As if the body is only a "carrier" or "container" of the mind. In contrast, embodiment theories of cognitive psychology had tried to distance itself from the classical cognitive psychology, highlighting the pervasiveness of in cognition of bodily factors. Right now, there are many approaches and programs sailing under the banner of "embodied cognition." A "moderate" or "weak" approaches to embodied cognitive psychology do not separate the body from the mind. They take the body as more in mind, and want to elevate the importance of the body in explaining cognitive processes. From the point of view of the moderates, cognition is in essence a kinds of bodily experience, and the nature of our bodies shapes our very possibilities for our thinking and feeling. For the moderates, cognition is still involved in mental representation and computable processing which are staples of classical cognitive psychology. However, the cognitive representations are not disembodied symbols, but are body-formatted or body-related codes. The "radical" or "strong" approaches to embodied cognitive psychology claim that cognitive systems do not rely on internal representations and computations. Human cognition should be explained without the ascription of representational mental states. Our cognition is essentially grounded in the brain as it is integrated with our body. The nature of our cognitive processes is determined by the specific action possibilities afforded by our body. Our cognitive system is for action, and about solving problems for the organism, not for forming cognitive representations. Cognition is essentially a embodied action.