Embodied cognition is definitely an additional asset that human's enjoy. It serves as another channel through which information can pass between the more instinctual (automatic) and intuitive (associative) areas of the unconscious mid-brain and cerebellum, and the more deliberate—and conscious—activity of areas of the prefrontal cortex.

The pattern recognition theory of mind would posit that this is an example of a priming of the brain by the recognition of "instability": the effect that the perception of actual instability has on the sensitivity thresholds of pattern recognition networks in the brain (i.e. those associated with "instability" as a gestalt contextual element).

Priming involves "implicit memory," which is a sort of intuition—created by overlaying perviously observed associations on top of current perceptions. This process enhances the function of visual pattern recognition by augmenting it with the probabilities of past observations.

So, in answer to the question of whether "human like intelligence requires a physical body that physiologically responds to changes in its external environment?": it is not so much that it needs a "body that physiologically responds to changes in its external environment"—for these physiological changes are simply reflections of implicit memory, they are information relays between the unconscious memory and the conscious experience. I would say that this relay is of high importance, but the physiological nature of this information relay is not a necessary factor. (It is, however, an efficient function, because physiological changes often simultaneously prime the behavior of the organism (by priming pattern recognition networks in the brain) and prepare for the behaviors that are in the repertoire of the primed behavioral state. For example, a rapid heart rate during fear not only relays the feeling of fear to the conscious brain, it also prepares the cardiovascular system for "fight or flight" behaviors.)

So it's not "necessary" for the information relay to be physiological in an AI system. In the case of the human organism, however, it certainly is convenient and efficient because of the dual role played by the physiological response in both priming behavior and preparing for the support of such behavior. This could be a useful application in a robotic system that needed to adjust physical operation dynamics for different behaviors, but is not an absolutely necessary component of "human like intelligence" (this information relay could theoretically be simulated or entirely disembodied).

Embodied cognition is definitely an additional asset that human's enjoy. It serves as another channel through which information can pass between the more instinctual (automatic) and intuitive (associative) areas of the unconscious mid-brain and cerebellum, and the more deliberate—and conscious—activity of areas of the prefrontal cortex.

The pattern recognition theory of mind would posit that this is an example of a priming of the brain by the recognition of "instability": the effect that the perception of actual instability has on the sensitivity thresholds of pattern recognition networks in the brain (i.e. those associated with "instability" as a gestalt contextual element).

Priming involves "implicit memory," which is a sort of intuition—created by overlaying perviously observed associations on top of current perceptions. This process enhances the function of visual pattern recognition by augmenting it with the probabilities of past observations.

So, in answer to the question of whether "human like intelligence requires a physical body that physiologically responds to changes in its external environment?": it is not so much that it needs a "body that physiologically responds to changes in its external environment"—for these physiological changes are simply reflections of implicit memory, they are information relays between the unconscious memory and the conscious experience. I would say that this relay is of high importance, but the physiological nature of this information relay is not a necessary factor. (It is, however, an efficient function, because physiological changes often simultaneously prime the behavior of the organism (by priming pattern recognition networks in the brain) and prepare for the behaviors that are in the repertoire of the primed behavioral state. For example, a rapid heart rate during fear not only relays the feeling of fear to the conscious brain, it also prepares the cardiovascular system for "fight or flight" behaviors.)

So it's not "necessary" for the information relay to be physiological in an AI system. In the case of the human organism, however, it certainly is convenient and efficient because of the dual role played by the physiological response in both priming behavior and preparing for the support of such behavior. This could be a useful application in a robotic system that needed to adjust physical operation dynamics for different behaviors, but is not an absolutely necessary component of "human like intelligence" (this information relay could theoretically be simulated or entirely disembodied).

You might want to check this bookL How the Body Shapes the Way We Think: A New View of Intelligence (Bradford Books) from Rolf Pfeifer (Author), Josh Bongard (Author)

from the AI lab in Zurich

see a talk on soft robot and SMCs (sensory-motor contingencies) by Rolf Pfeifer: "On the role of embodiment in the emergence of cognition"

http://vimeo.com/28811223

Wonderful explanation in cognitive terms Nicholas. If I may, what I like Eric is that you connect the diverse expressions of physical phenomena (temperature, balance, cleanliness) to one another as a unified somatosensory awareness of contextual physics replicated physiologically (an affective embodiment which often tends to affective disorders that are “anxious to reestablish vestibular tenability”). But balance sense (vestibular sensation in any modality or even equilibrioception itself) is not that odd when we think of it in terms of change-response and the urgency incumbent on a system when experiencing some internal system deficit to be accommodated first.

The bridge and chair exemplify priming of the affective basal rate prior to the need to infer an explanation about subsequent ambiguous cues – energy in need of a direction followed by a direction in need of an explanation. Imbalance is not simply relative to gravity, but to any need deferred from its requisite rate of fulfillment For the chair, when we feel discomfited, our attention is no longer regulated by the “cognitive” need for goal fulfillment from a rest potential, but by a frustrating requisite to first reestablish system balance internally – and this is very similar to temperature-aggression phenomena (statistics of elevated warm weather violence, depression/SAD – any unstable equilibrioceptive condition wherein all incoming stimuli no matter how pleasant barely seem to reach the threshold of adequacy). For example, a family member is being treated for vertigo (BPPV) and I noticed she is also overly sensitive to any elevated rates of afferent stimuli of any modality (olfactory, gustatory, temperature, etc). The inner loss of vestibular regulation seems to detract generally from all incoming rate adaptation which causes considerable anxiety even when they are normatively very pleasant stimuli (familiar aromatic smells, etc).

For the bridge, the elevated anxiety is accompanied by a serendipitously primed direction for that anxiety – the suggestive presence of the female interviewer in a situation of “mutual danger” (which often fashions strong bonds like camaraderie within genders or arouses impressionist risk-taking and sexual attraction between genders) We do not know why we are so overwhelmingly driven to do the things we do (affectation), but we are pretty good at explaining them “rationally” to ourselves later (cognition) based on concurrent cues that make it seem we chose our loves - rather than having been incidentally inclined to fall (inexorably) toward things conveniently proximal during affective urgency’s arousal. Whether we need affective fulfillment and find a goal to elevate it, or stumble on a potential goal and find preexisting affectation inexplicably welcoming it, either satisfies affective frequency.

For its relevancy to AI, I think that though we do not require “physiological equivalence” per se, we do require afferent/efferent pathway capability to fashion the equivalence of unavoidable consciousness; simple replication of human symptomatic responses to stimuli may match the look, but not the urgency within the artificial organism. Survival and the proprioceptive sense of intra-system dependencies need to arise naturally and unavoidably via affectation, so that they are affective frequencies reasoned cognitively and post substantively to defend the continued existence of self (like intrinsic motivation and an internal quest for identity). We may not consider the gradient layers of nonconsciousness to be part of conscious cognition, but they are, perhaps even more so than our post-experiential explanations in the PFC (as Libet suggested). I am hopeful the future of AI will begin with the human paradox of upwardly cascading emotions driven to explain themselves by a cognitive version of meta-affectation - that defends the existence of nonconscious responses by believing itself to be the origin and locus of things that happened before its arousal got hold of them. When we do this, we will have “children” not machines - as urgent as we to know where they came from and why they are here.

physiology differs from person to person. it needs strong data to do the comparison amount different personalities. Although we can surely analyse the environment conditions and they do effect on the psychological movement and behaviour of a human being. But it totally depends on training of the AI system similar to human beings. You need to further narrow down your research to each psychological movement, this will further enhance your research for the AI.