A growing body of research within the field of intelligent robotics argues for a view of intelligence drastically different from classical artificial intelligence and cognitive science. The holistic and embodied ideas expressed by this research sees emergence as the springing source for intelligence. Similar perspectives, where numerous interactions within the system lead to emergent properties and cognitive abilities beyond that of the individual parts, can be found within many scientific fields. With the goal of understanding how behavior may be represented in robots, the present review tries to grasp what this notion of emergence really means and compare it with a selection of theories developed for analysis of human cognition. These theories reveal a view of intelligence where common notions of objects, goals and reasoning have to be rethought. A view where behavior, as well as the agent as such, is in the eye of the observer rather than given. Structures in the environment is achieved by interaction rather than recognized. In such a view, the fundamental question is how emergent systems appear and develop, and how they may be controlled.