enaction

Noun

enaction (usually uncountable, plural enactions)

1. (usually) The process of enacting something.
   • a wide spectrum of tics and compulsive movements […] which were enactions of sudden urges.1973, Oliver Sacks, Awakenings
   • Two important threads of this work are to design a representation formalism for describing software process models and to develop new mechanisms to support the enaction of instantiated software process models.1991, Takuya Katayama, Support for the Software Process, page 151
2. (usually, cognitive science) The interpretation of consciousness or understanding as a process of meaningfully engaging and interacting with the world in a hierarchy of actions that produce reactions.
   • An appreciation of the power of enaction in our understandings of the mind will throw into relief the question of motivations and goals.2005, Ralph D. Ellis, Natika Newton, Consciousness & Emotion: Agency, conscious choice, and selective perception
   • The processes that underlie the organization and honing of these skills operate over a wide range of timescales, which include the enaction of a particular perceptual act at one end and the lifetime development of perception-action capabilities at the other.2017, Ezequiel A. Di Paolo, Thomas Buhrmann, Xabier E. Barandiaran, Sensorimotor Life: An Enactive Proposal, page 76