A Reexamination of the Perceptual-to-Conceptual Shift in Mental Representations

1997 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 271-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul C. Quinn ◽  
Peter D. Eimas
Keyword(s):  
Mental Representations ◽  
Continuous Process ◽  
Human Knowledge ◽  
Surface Features ◽  
Conceptual Representations ◽  
Human Thought ◽  
Young Infants ◽  
Conceptual Shift ◽  
Perceptual Systems

The authors discuss the origins of categorical representations in young infants, using recent evidence on the categorization of animals. This evidence suggests that mature conceptual representations for animals derive from the earliest perceptually based representations of animals formed by young infants, those based on the surface features characteristic of each species, including humans. The shift from perceptually to conceptually based representation is a gradual and continuous process marked by initial, relatively simple, perceptually based representations coming to include more and more specific values of common animal properties. Development is thus a process of enrichment by perceptual systems, including that for language, and without the need of specialized processes that alter the nature of human thought and the representation of human knowledge.

scholarly journals Characterizing Variability in Shared Meaning through Millions of Sketches

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Molly Lewis ◽  
Anjali Balamurugan ◽  
Bin Zheng ◽  
Gary Lupyan
Keyword(s):  
Mental Representations ◽  
Shared Meaning ◽  
Conceptual Representations ◽  
Average Person ◽  
Specific Concept ◽  
Valence And Arousal

The study of mental representations of concepts has historically focused on the representations of the “average” person. Here, we shift away from this aggregate view and examine the principles of variability across people in conceptual representations. Using a database of millions of sketches by people worldwide, we ask what predicts whether people converge or diverge in their representations of a specific concept, and which kinds of concepts tend to be more or less variable.We find that larger and more dense populations tend to have less variable representations, and concepts high in valence and arousal tend to be less variable across people. Further, two countries tend to have people with more similar conceptual representations when they are linguistically, geographically, and culturally similar. Our work provides the first characterization of the principles of variability in shared meaning across a large, diverse sample of participants.

scholarly journals Permafrost Dynamics and Degradation in Polar Arctic From Satellite Radar Observations, Yamal Peninsula

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kanayim Teshebaeva ◽  
Ko J. van Huissteden ◽  
Helmut Echtler ◽  
Alexander V. Puzanov ◽  
Dmitry N. Balykin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Continuous Process ◽  
Yamal Peninsula ◽  
Observation Data ◽  
Surface Dynamics ◽  
Stream Channels ◽  
Small Stream ◽  
Surface Features ◽  
Satellite Radar ◽  
Sar Imagery

We investigate permafrost surface features revealed from satellite radar data in the Siberian arctic at the Yamal peninsula. Surface dynamics analysis based on SRTM and TanDEM-X DEMs shows up to 2 m net loss of surface relief between 2000 and 2014 indicating a highly dynamic landscape. Surface features for the past 14 years reflect an increase in small stream channels and a number of new lakes that developed, likely caused by permafrost thaw. We used Sentinel-1 SAR imagery to measure permafrost surface changes. Owing to limited observation data we analyzed only 2 years. The InSAR time-series has detected surface displacements in three distinct spatial locations during 2017 and 2018. At these three locations, 60–120 mm/yr rates of seasonal surface permafrost changes are observed. Spatial location of seasonal ground displacements aligns well with lithology. One of them is located on marine sediments and is linked to anthropogenic impact on permafrost stability. Two other areas are located within alluvial sediments and are at the top of topographic elevated zones. We discuss the influence of the geologic environment and the potential effect of local upwelling of gas. These combined analyses of InSAR time-series with analysis of geomorphic features from DEMs present an important tool for continuous process monitoring of surface dynamics as part of a global warming risk assessment.

Beyond psychoanalysis and group analysis. The urgent need for a new paradigm of the human being

2019 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 409-426 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Tubert-Oklander
Keyword(s):  
Physical Science ◽  
Group Analysis ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Mental Life ◽  
Human Knowledge ◽  
Social Dimensions ◽  
New Paradigm ◽  
Human Thought ◽  
Science Philosophy ◽  
Knowledge And Practice

Freud’s momentous discovery that the largest part of mental life, both individual and collective is unknown to us and out of our control, brought about a major revolution in epistemology and our conception of the human being, but such evolution was stalled by Freud’s adherence to several assumptions that were an essential part of his Weltanschauung or ‘Conception of the World’. These were the individualistic paradigm and the misguided attempt to turn the discipline he had created into a positivistic science, framed in the model of the natural sciences. Orthodox psychoanalysis has since focused on the intrapsychic, leaving out the interpersonal and social dimensions. Group analysis, as introduced by Foulkes has been a bold attempt to transcend the limitations of psychoanalysis and integrate the dimensions it has ignored or denied. Nonetheless, the development of Foulkes’ revolutionary contributions was encumbered by his adherence to Freudian theory, just like the latter was by his creator’s subservience to positivistic natural science. Psychoanalysis and group analysis are two aspects of the wider field of analysis, but they are still impeded by a series of assumptions held by both science and common sense. These are: i) materialistic metaphysics, ii) the Cartesian subject, iii) deterministic positivism, iv) neutral objectivism, and v) rejection of teleology. Hence, the need to go beyond psychoanalysis and group analysis and formulate a new paradigm of the human being. This is a work in progress, being tackled by many people from different fields of human knowledge and practice, such as physical science, biology, neuroscience, psychoanalysis, group analysis, sociology, political science, philosophy, theology, hermeneutics, and the Humanities, among many others. It is an interdisciplinary enterprise, to which analysis may and should contribute, but only through an open dialogue with its peers in the field of human thought.

scholarly journals God beyond the Boundary-Stones of Thought

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 50-97
Author(s):  
Abbas Ahsan
Keyword(s):  
Human Knowledge ◽  
Epistemic Relativism ◽  
Maximal Power ◽  
Human Thought

In this paper, I make the case for epistemic relativism: the radical view that all human knowledge/truth is relative. I extend the application of epistemic relativism to include necessary laws such as the laws of logic. I argue that the truth of such laws are relative to human thought, which are ultimately instances derived from our experiences. These experiences act as limitations to which we are conceptually bound. As a result of this, we cannot apprehend God’s omnipotence. This includes God’s maximal power in being able toperform logically impossible actions. Our epistemic inability to conceive of such logically impossible actions is therefore testimony that God transcends the laws of logic.

scholarly journals Pengembangan Sumber Daya Manusia dalam Perspektif epistEmologi Filsafat Islam

ULUMUNA ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 213-230
Author(s):  
Asep Kurniawan
Keyword(s):  
Human Resources ◽  
Human Knowledge ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Human Thought ◽  
Dialectical Process

Human beings are the only creature whose capability of knowledge enabling them to develop. However, this could be hampered by the wrong epistemology understanding based on a religion they believe. This research aims to encourage human thought to be dynamically progressive without jeopardizing values of Qur’an. This is carried out through placing the Islamic epistemology on the autonomy of ration and empirical experiences and conducting dialectical process between them and Al-Qur’an.  Conclusions derived are that human knowledge can develop dynamically and progressively in line with the spirit of the Qur’an. It automatically has an impact on the development of holistic human resources. In this context, Islamic epistemology then is the main drive for the development of human resources.  

scholarly journals A Functional Role for Modality-Specific Perceptual Systems in Conceptual Representations

PLoS ONE ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. e33321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Connell ◽  
Dermot Lynott ◽  
Felix Dreyer
Keyword(s):  
Functional Role ◽  
Conceptual Representations ◽  
Perceptual Systems

scholarly journals Knowledge as Light

1999 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 85-97
Author(s):  
Ibrahim Kalin
Keyword(s):  
Social Function ◽  
Sharp Contrast ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Human Knowledge ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Physical Entity ◽  
Human Thought ◽  
Conceptual Thought ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject

The question of knowledge presents itself as one of the most importantissues for human thought and society because it is through knowledge thatwe establish a bond with God, ourselves, other human beings, the world, itsmeaning and purpose. We establish sociopolitical systems and civilizationson the basis of it. Defined as such, no society can dispense with knowledge.Knowledge, however, transcends the limits of social function and revealssomething of the deepest nature of the human being. Our state of being-inthe-world and being-created-by-God is revealed to us in our knowledge ofourselves. More importantly, we do not simply exist but also know that weexist. It is this knowledge that enables us to make sense of the world, conceiveit as an intelligible state of being, and realize our place and role in it.Knowledge, however, is always the knowledge of something. Everymeaningful statement is the affiition or negation of something. In knowinga physical entity, a concept, or a feeling, we affirm or negate the existenceof that “thing” which has become the subject of our knowledge. This“thing” and the “of” of our judgments ultimately hark back to the allencompassingreality of being, because what can be affirmed or negatedcannot be other than being. In this regard, there is no knowledge that precedesbeing. Every cognitive act directed toward ourselves or other thingsthat can be the subject of human knowledge is grounded in the all-inclusiveand penetrating reality of being. This aspect of being has been called inIslamic philosophy the in&@ al-wujud, “expansion of being,” and sometimesal-sarayun al-wujiid, “penetration of being.” In sharp contrast to theepistemologies of subjectivism, one is before one knows. Our existencealways precedes our knowledge of it, even though the latter may effect andmode the former in a myriad of ways. Said differently, the reality of beingis not exhausted in the deliverances of conceptual thought.’ ...

scholarly journals Linguistic Relativity and Flexibility of Mental Representations: Color Terms in a Frame Based Analysis

2021 ◽  
pp. 121-141
Author(s):  
Leda Berio
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Mental Representation ◽  
Mental Representations ◽  
Linguistic Relativity ◽  
Perceptual Information ◽  
Linguistic Information ◽  
Color Terms ◽  
Conceptual Representations ◽  
Fundamental Assumption ◽  
Variable Influence

AbstractThis paper connects the issue of the influence of language on conceptual representations, known as Linguistic Relativity, with some issues pertaining to concepts’ structure and retrieval. In what follows, I present a model of the relation between linguistic information and perceptual information in concepts using frames as a format of mental representation, and argue that this model not only accommodates the empirical evidence presented by the linguistic relativity debate, but also sheds some light on unanswered questions regarding conceptual representations’ structure. A fundamental assumption is that mental representations can be conceptualised as complex functional structures whose components can be dynamically and flexibly recruited depending on the tasks at hand; the components include linguistic and non-linguistic elements. This kind of model allows for the representation of the interaction between linguistic and perceptual information and accounts for the variable influence that color labels have on non-linguistic tasks. The paper provides some example of strategy shifting and flexible recruitment of linguistic information available in the literature and explains them using frames.

Considerations with regard to Hereditary Influence

1863 ◽  
Vol 8 (44) ◽  
pp. 482-512 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Maudsley
Keyword(s):  
Modern Science ◽  
Human Knowledge ◽  
Human Thought ◽  
The Past ◽  
Scientific Fact ◽  
The Future ◽  
Giordano Bruno ◽  
Ex Nihilo ◽  
The Individual ◽  
First Time

Although the axiom ex nihilo nihil fit may unquestionably in strict logic be pronounced to be a pure assumption, for as much as it is not impossible that an enlarged experience may sometime furnish us with an instantia contradictoria, yet it is plainly necessary within the compass of human knowledge to consider it an established truth. Within human ken there is, indeed, no beginning, no end; the past is developed in the present, and the present in the prediction of the future; cause produces effect, and effect in its turn becomes cause. Dust is man, and to dust he returns; the individual passes away, but that out of which he is created does not pass away. The decomposition of one compound is the production of another, and death is an entrance into a new being. This is no new truth, although modern science is now for the first time making good use of it; the earlier Grecian philosophers distinctly recognised it, and it has many times been plainly enunciated since their time. “All things,” said Empedocles, “are but a mingling and a separation of the mingled, which are called birth and death by ignorant mortals.” Plato expressed himself in like manner; and the plain statement of the truth was one of the heresies of the unfortunate Giordano Bruno. The imagination of Shakspeare, faithful to the scientific fact, traces the noble dust of Alexander till it is found stopping a bung-hole, and follows imperious Caesar till he patches a hole to keep the wind away. The immortality of matter and of force is an evident necessity of human thought.

scholarly journals TECHNOLOGY SPACES AND THE DIGITAL LINGUISTIC IN THE HOLY QUR’AN-THE SEMANTICS OF THE DIGITAL SYSTEM IN THE LANGUAGE OF THE QUR’AN-

2021 ◽  
Vol 03 (03) ◽  
pp. 314-320
Author(s):  
Zakia MEHENNA
Keyword(s):  
Technological Development ◽  
High Technology ◽  
Real Space ◽  
Digital System ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
Human Knowledge ◽  
Human Thought ◽  
System A ◽  
Mathematical System ◽  
The World

The world witnessed a tremendous intellectual flow towards technological development in its conceptual, cognitive and technical perspective, in order to reach the highest levels of human knowledge, which had precedence in human existence within Qur'an. This research is focusing on the reproduction of the HolyQur'an miracle in human thought, through the successive researches and scientific studies via the high technology, especially if it's related to the semantic linguistic and its contents translated into the realities of human existence in its real space, which we see in the semantics of the digital system within the language of the Holy Qur'an, and accordingly we will focus on the reality of the emergence of a mathematical system that is well-established in the space of Arabic for the technics of the technological age that we are witnessing today, as the letters, words and sentences in the verses and surahs of the Noble Qur'an come in a precise form bearing connotations, according to a numerical system, a mathematical complex indicative of the language of the Furqan, which the statement and Arabic rhetoric are wrapped in its digital miracle.

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