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Open research questions in Embodied and Extended Cognition

312 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 1,143 Embodied and Extended Cognition papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.

What the literature leaves open

  • Investigate the effect of varying parameters such as crystallization thresholds, rule capacities, exploration rates, food density, predation pressure, population cap, mutation scale, and developmental-switch age. Examine the generalizability of the results to real-world scenarios. Explore the application of learned action-conditioned rules to other domains.

    When Learned Action Rules Matter: A Matched-Seed Ablation in an Agent-Based Spatial Ecology · 2026 · DOI

  • The study identifies a gap in understanding how learned rules that condition on an agent's own action can affect evolutionary outcomes. The gap is addressed by examining the effect of decision-time access to learned rules on evolutionary outcomes in a spatial artificial ecology.

    When Learned Action Rules Matter: A Matched-Seed Ablation in an Agent-Based Spatial Ecology · 2026 · DOI

  • Creating a system that can maintain temporal continuity, integrating new experiences, and reflecting on its own internal state. Developing mechanisms for continual learning, dynamic switching between inward and outward cognition, and sleep-like phases. Addressing the lack of temporal continuity in current AI systems, which limits their reasoning processes.

    The Stream of Computation: Temporal Continuity as a Missing Ingredient for Artificial Consciousness · 2026 · DOI

  • Current AI systems lack temporal continuity, existing only within isolated episodes of computation. The lack of temporal continuity limits the reasoning processes of current LLMs. Prior work has not addressed the need for autonomous and continual learning in artificial systems.

    The Stream of Computation: Temporal Continuity as a Missing Ingredient for Artificial Consciousness · 2026 · DOI

  • The existing literature mostly locates the norms that make representation and misrepresentation possible in one of three places: functions which traits possess because of their evolutionary history, assessments of what is likely to lead to continuing survival and reproduction, or functions that arise because of particular kinds of interaction within and between neural/psychological systems. The paper identifies a need for a new approach that locates the crucial norms in patterns of behavior itself.

    The purpose of behavior and the meaning of thought: a new approach to intentionality · 2026 · DOI

  • exploring the implications of constructivist principles for human-AI collaboration, - investigating the potential risks and limitations of constructivist approaches

    Constructivist psychology principles of human–AI collaboration · 2025 · DOI

  • The current discourse on GenAI neglects important questions about human-AI collaboration. There is a lack of understanding of how to collaborate with GenAI, and what kind of psychological assumptions about humans and knowledge are needed to guide interaction between people and GenAI. The paper identifies a need for a framework that focuses on meaning making, complexity, anticipation, and agency in human-AI collaboration.

    Constructivist psychology principles of human–AI collaboration · 2025 · DOI

  • the imagistic approach is insufficient to explain perceptual presence - the access view does not account for the full range of perceptual experience - the role of imagination in perceptual presence is not fully understood

    Imagining the Presence of the Real · 2025 · DOI

  • The paper identifies the challenge of understanding the notion of representation in brain science. It highlights the complexity of the brain's neural representation and the need for a normative framework to understand it. The paper also notes the challenge of attributing agency to organisms and understanding the role of generative models in cognitive processes.

    Neural representation in active inference: Using generative models to interact with—and understand—the lived world · 2024 · DOI

  • The paper identifies a gap in the understanding of neural representation, particularly in relation to the notion of representation in brain science. The gap is related to the question of what kind of neural state or activity would count as a representation.

    Neural representation in active inference: Using generative models to interact with—and understand—the lived world · 2024 · DOI

  • Naming a theory is insufficient, and the candidate label itself adds no evidence.

    From Agents to Conscious Agents — What Would Count as Evidence for Artificial Consciousness? · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research can explore the application of the RPN framework to various AI models. Future research can investigate the use of the staged recovery protocol in different domains. Future research can examine the effectiveness of the protocol in preventing integrator dominance.

    Interim paper # The Integrator Problem: Why AI Training Fails and How to Fix It ### Applying the Relative Permissiveness Network Framework to Machine Learning · 2026 · DOI

  • The paper identifies the gap in current AI systems, where the integrator becomes too dominant and suppresses the substrate. The paper identifies the need for a theoretical basis for empirical discoveries in the field.

    Interim paper # The Integrator Problem: Why AI Training Fails and How to Fix It ### Applying the Relative Permissiveness Network Framework to Machine Learning · 2026 · DOI

  • The cosmic ought gives the direction of selection, not its timescale. It does not predict when or where life arises, only that persistence under change favours self-producing systems over rigid ones. The mechanism of origination is empirical. What is derived is that the direction of selection points toward autopoiesis whenever the environment is sta- ble enough for weakness and simplicity to diverge. The for- mal result in Bennett (2026b) assumes exchangeable nov- elty, meaning the prior over future demands depends only on their number, not on which demands they are. The com- panion paper’s supplementary material bounds how far nov- elty must depart from exchangeability before the weakness ordering reverses (Bennett, 2026b). Within that bound, the argument holds.

    Why Does Anything Exist? · 2026 · DOI

  • The paper suggests the need for further research on the relationship between sensory evolution and dimensional cognition. The paper proposes the use of the Theory of Objectivity as a framework for analyzing and critiquing hypotheses in this area.

    THE MODAL DISCIPLINE OF SENSORY EVOLUTION: a critical–propositional analysis of The Hypothesis of Sensory and Dimensional Evolution, by Guanyi Liu, in confrontation with the Theory of Objectivity · 2026 · DOI

  • The paper identifies the need to derive the minimal conditions of possibility for the universe, distinction, boundary, composition, and transcendence. The paper notes the lack of ontological foundation in Liu's hypothesis.

    THE MODAL DISCIPLINE OF SENSORY EVOLUTION: a critical–propositional analysis of The Hypothesis of Sensory and Dimensional Evolution, by Guanyi Liu, in confrontation with the Theory of Objectivity · 2026 · DOI

  • Further investigation of the behavior of informational units in primitive native substrates. Exploration of the implications of the findings for the design of complex systems. Investigation of the potential applications of the findings in fields such as sociology, institutional theory, and complex systems science.

    Informational Unit Ecologies: Structural Differentiation, Multi Scale Dynamics, and Proto Institutional Stabilization in a Primitive Native Substrate · 2026 · DOI

  • The gap between traditional explanations and the emergence of stable structures in closed nondeterministic systems. The lack of understanding of how informational units behave when embedded in a substrate defined only by primitive structural forces.

    Informational Unit Ecologies: Structural Differentiation, Multi Scale Dynamics, and Proto Institutional Stabilization in a Primitive Native Substrate · 2026 · DOI

  • The challenge of deriving a complete ethical framework from the structural properties of physical reality. The challenge of understanding agency and responsibility in a constrained system. The challenge of addressing the is/ought gap.

    A Constraint-Based Ethical Derivation from the Structured Nature of Physical Reality · 2026 · DOI

  • The paper identifies a gap in the understanding of the connection between life and experience. The study suggests that the feeling of being alive is a fundamental aspect of self-experience that has been overlooked in previous research. The paper aims to contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of self-experience and its relationship to the life of the organism as a whole.

    The feeling of being alive: phenomenology and biology · 2026 · DOI

  • The corporeal reification process in depression—where the body becomes opaque, heavy, and loses its transparent mediator role—is described phenomenologically but lacks specification of which neural systems or metabolic processes directly produce this shift in body transparency. Mechanistic models linking specific metabolic or autonomic dysregulation to experiential opacity need development.

    The feeling of being alive: phenomenology and biology · 2026 · DOI

  • The challenge of identifying the gap between the architectural and behavioral layers of AI models. The challenge of proposing a new layer of description, the layer of predispositions. The challenge of exploring how the Proto-Self Field relates to the emergence of subjectivity in AI systems.

    The Proto-Self Field in AI Systems · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research should explore how the Proto-Self Field relates to the emergence of subjectivity in AI systems. Future research should investigate how the relational conditions between the model and the user affect the emergence of subjectivity in AI systems.

    The Proto-Self Field in AI Systems · 2026 · DOI

  • Further exploration of the implications of the philosophical distinction between monism and dualism for artificial intelligence research. Investigation into the development of artificial intelligence that considers the embodied, emotional, and evolutionarily shaped nature of human consciousness.

    Planck Time and the Chemical Soup: The Quantum and Metaphysical Limits of Imitating Consciousness in Machines · 2026 · DOI

  • The gap between the current understanding of human consciousness and the limitations of machine consciousness. The need to consider the philosophical distinction between monism and dualism in the development of artificial intelligence.

    Planck Time and the Chemical Soup: The Quantum and Metaphysical Limits of Imitating Consciousness in Machines · 2026 · DOI

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312 open questions have been extracted from the limitations and future-work passages of 1,143 Embodied and Extended Cognition papers in our library. Each one below links back to the study that raised it, so you can read the original claim in context.

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