Virtual and Robotic Embodiment
Cognitive Neuroergonomics investigates mental processes at work or during everyday interactions with technical systems through neuroscientific methods. The goal is to improve interactions between the person and other elements of a system like a working environment through a user-centered design. Among these processes, the integration of artificial extensions into the users’ body scheme, i.e., embodiment, is especially useful for improving user experience and system control. In the literature, embodiment is related to phenomena like the feeling that non-bodily objects are integrated to become part of one’s own body, the adjustment of a person’s behavior to the characteristics of external items, and, more generally, to the activation of the individual motor system during the execution of cognitive tasks. In particular, the embodiment of avatars or robots constitutes a premise for successfully mediated interactions between the user and a comprehensive set of items such as environments, to