Pinker, S. & Bloom, P. (1990). Natural language and natural selection. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 13

Advanced perceptual systems are faced with the problem of securing a principled relationship between the world and its internal representation. I propose a unified approach to visual representation, based on Shepard's (1968) notion of second-order isomorphism. According to the proposed theory, a shape is represented internally by the responses of a few tuned modules, each of which is broadly selective for some reference shape, whose similarity to the stimulus it measures. The result is a philosophically appealing, computationally feasible, biologically credible, and formally veridical representation of a distal shape space. This approach supports representation of and discrimination among shapes radically different from the reference ones, while bypassing the need for the computationally problematic decomposition into parts; it also addresses the needs of shape categorization, and can be used to derive a range of models of perceived similarity. Representation is Representation of Sim...

Abstract (Long) When cognitive scientists apply computational theory to the problem of phenomenal consciousness, as many of them have been doing recently, there are two fundamentally distinct approaches available. Either consciousness is to be explained in terms of the nature of the representational vehicles the brain deploys; or it is to be explained in terms of the computational processes defined over these vehicles. We call versions of these two approaches vehicle and process theories of consciousness, respectively. However, while there may be space for vehicle theories of consciousness in cognitive science, they are relatively rare. This is because of the influence exerted, on the one hand, by a large body of research which purports to show that the explicit representation of information in the brain and conscious experience are dissociable, and on the other, by the classical computational theory of mind – the theory that takes human cognition to be a species of symbol manipulation. But two recent developments in cognitive science combine to suggest that a reappraisal of this situation is in order. First, a number of theorists have recently been highly critical of the experimental methodologies employed in the dissociation studies – so critical, in fact, it’s no longer reasonable to assume that the dissociability of conscious experience and explicit representation has been adequately demonstrated. Second, classicism, as a theory of human cognition, is no longer as dominant in

The main claim of this paper is that connectionism offers cognitive science a number of excellent opportunities for turning methodological, theoretical. and meta-theoretica! schisms into powerfnl integrations--opportunities for forging constructive synergy out of the destructive interference which plagues the field. The paper begins with an analysis of the rifts in tile field and what it would take to overcome them. We argue that while connectionism ha,s often contributed to the deepexLing of these schisms, ]t is nonetheless possible to turn this trend around--possible for connectionism to play a central role in a unification of cognitive science. Essential o this process is the development of strong theoretical principles founded (in part) on connectionist computation; a main goal of this paper is to demonstrate that such principles are indeed within the reach of a connectionist-grounded theory of cognition. The enterprise rests on a willingness to entertain, analyze, and extend characterizations of cognitive problems, and hypothesized solutions, which are deliberately overly simple and general--in order to disco4'er the insights they can offer through mathematical a.na.lyses which this simplicity and generality are makes possible.

There is a form of representation that is naturally emergent in the organization of interactive systems. Interactive representation has claims to be the fundamental form of representation, from which all others are derivative. In particular, it naturally satisfies a meta-epistemological criterion that is not addressed by standard approaches in contemporary literature, and is arguably impossible to satisfy within any version those standard approaches. Furthermore, the interactive approach naturally avoids other multiple aporias that bedevil standard approaches. Much effort has been devoted in recent literature to attempts to satisfy a critical meta-epistemological criterion: representation must be capable of being in error. The criterion that I will apply is a strengthening of this one: representation must be capable of being in error in such a way that that condition of being in error is detectable by the agent or system that is doing the representing --- the meta-epistemological crite...

Abstract not found

The problem of representing the spatial structure of images, which arises in visual object processing, is commonly described using terminology borrowed from propositional theories of cognition, notably, the concept of compositionality. The classical propositional stance mandates representations composed of symbols, which stand for atomic or composite entities and enter into arbitrarily nested relationships.

this paper on these three: representation, action, and motivation. In particular, I will argue that the standard view of representation as some kind of correspondence, as an encoding, is wrong. I outline an alternative model of representation that emerges naturally in agents, biological or designed, that actually engage the world (Beer, 1990, 1995, in press; Beer, Chiel, Stirling, 1990; Bickhard, 1980, 1993; Bickhard & Terveen, 1995; Brooks, 1991a, 1991b, 1991c; Cherian & Troxell, in press; Malcolm, Smithers, Hallam, 1989; Smithers, 1994). One primary consequence of this alternative model of representation --- called interactivism --- is that functions that are standardly taken to reside in separate modules, such as representation, action, and motivation, are inherently integrated as separate functional aspects of one single underlying ontology. They are not inherently distinct modules. If standard models that permit such modularization are in error, then so are such modularizations per se. 2 Encoding Models of Representation.

It is argued that theoretical approaches to the nature of the influence of early experience on personality development have been vitiated by incorrect metaphysical assumptions, of a sort historically characteristic of immature sciences. In particular, mind and mental phenomena are construed in terms of various sorts of substances and structures, instead of in terms of process ontologies. We show that these underlying metaphysical assumptions have prevented the most central problems of the influence of early experience from being addressed, and, therefore, from being answered as well. These aporia seriously infect such contemporary approaches as object relations theory, attachment theory, and cognitive behavioral theory. We outline an alternative process ontology of mind and intentionality — specifically, a process-functional ontology for representation — and explore the form of early influence offered within this new perspective. The Influence of Early Experience

The received view is that computational states are individuated at least in part by their semantic properties. I offer an alternative, according to which computational states are individuated by their functional properties. Functional properties are specified by a mechanistic explanation without appealing to any semantic properties. The primary purpose of this paper is to formulate the alternative view of computational individuation, point out that it supports a robust notion of computational explanation, and defend it on the grounds of how computational states are individuated within computability theory and computer science. A secondary purpose is to show that existing arguments for the semantic view are defective.