Re: Perceptual symbol systems

From: Sergio Navega (snavega_at_intelliwise.com)
Date: 08/07/04 

Date: Sat, 7 Aug 2004 10:07:05 -0300

"Glen M. Sizemore" <gmsizemore2@yahoo.com> escreveu na mensagem
news:6e2f1d09.0408070305.2ea1831b@posting.google.com...
> SN: In this regard, perceptual symbol systems conserve some qualities
> of the thing it represents.
>
> GS: Here's an age-old question, Serg: If the representations of
> qualities are "what is actually perceived" and perception depends on
> representations, why do we not need a representation of the
> representation and so on and on and on? And if one says that "this
> sort of seeing doesn't require a representation" why can't one say of
> seeing, in general, that it doesn't require a representation?

Think of representations as patterns of activation in groups
of neurons that can be, for instance, associated with motor commands.
You hear the phrase "press any key" and this fires a sequence of
patterns that command your fingers to press a key. The patterns
derived from the hearing of that phrase are a "representation"
of some phonological qualities.

And who said we can't have representations of representations? Why
would that be impossible or even awkward? Just because something
seems to be derived from another, it doesn't have to be so up to
infinity. Representing representations is a topic studied in
metacognition.

Think about how many uses you can find for a plastic bag. You don't
have to say all of them, just to give an estimate of the number of
uses. Is it 2? 10? 100? Now think of the uses you can find for a Space
Shuttle. Is it 3 or 10 or 20? All of us can make an estimate about
these numbers (it is not important if it is accurate or not). At this
moment, we are representing representations.

In fact, the ability of humans to "know" what one "knows" is part
of our greater intelligence when compared with other animals. And
if you need another example, here it goes: what we are doing here
right now is that thing of thinking about what we know, considering
and commiting to memory information about what we know, and also
about what the other poster knows (and I "know" that you'll probably
be tempted to poke fun at me because of this last phrase ;-).

Sergio Navega.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: I dont get how the computer arrives at 2^31
    ... Francis Glassborow writes: ... an implementation could change representations as it ... > representations the implementation is entitled to arbitrarily change ... > choose to not save the actual bit patterns when paging out the memory, ...
    (comp.std.c)
  • Re: I dont get how the computer arrives at 2^31
    ... an implementation could change representations as it ... int memory; ... choose to not save the actual bit patterns when paging out the memory, ...
    (comp.std.c)
  • Re: Perceptual symbol systems
    ... perceptual symbol systems conserve some qualities ... Think of representations as patterns of activation in groups ... > of some phonological qualities. ... brain" during a surgery in his brain. ...
    (sci.cognitive)
  • Re: Perceptual symbol systems
    ... Think of representations as patterns of activation in groups ... > of some phonological qualities. ... brain" during a surgery in his brain. ... and the Obfuscation of Memory" by some folks that are too stupid to see how ...
    (sci.cognitive)