scholarly journals The exploratory status of postconnectionist models

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-164
Author(s):  
Miljana Milojevic ◽  
Vanja Subotic
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Neural Nets ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Connectionist Models ◽  
Learning Techniques ◽  
History Of ◽  
Alternative Methodology ◽  
Connectionist Approach ◽  
Sharp Criticism

This paper aims to offer a new view of the role of connectionist models in the study of human cognition through the conceptualization of the history of connectionism - from the simplest perceptrons to convolutional neural nets based on deep learning techniques, as well as through the interpretation of criticism coming from symbolic cognitive science. Namely, the connectionist approach in cognitive science was the target of sharp criticism from the symbolists, which on several occasions caused its marginalization and almost complete abandonment of its assumptions in the study of cognition. Criticisms have mostly pointed to its explanatory inadequacy as a theory of cognition or to its biological implausibility as a theory of implementation, and critics often focused on specific shortcomings of some connectionist models and argued that they apply on connectionism in general. In this paper we want to show that both types of critique are based on the assumption that the only valid explanations in cognitive science are instances of homuncular functionalism and that by removing this assumption and by adopting an alternative methodology - exploratory mechanistic strategy, we can reject most objections to connectionism as irrelevant, explain the progress of connectionist models despite their shortcomings and sketch the trajectory of their future development. By adopting mechanistic explanations and by criticizing functionalism, we will reject the objections of explanatory inadequacy, by characterizing connectionist models as generic rather than concrete mechanisms, we will reject the objections of biological implausibility, and by attributing the exploratory character to connectionist models we will show that practice of generalizing current to general failures of connectionism is unjustified.

scholarly journals What is the role of computational models in Cognitive Science? A quantitative and qualitative analysis of the history of the TRACE model of speech segmentation

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manisha Chawla ◽  
Richard Shillcock
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Computational Models ◽  
Computational Modelling ◽  
Speech Segmentation ◽  
Cognitive Modelling ◽  
Trace Model ◽  
History Of ◽  
Central Paradigm

Implemented computational models are a central paradigm of Cognitive Science. How do cognitive scientists really use such models? We take the example of one of the most successful and influential cognitive models, TRACE (McClelland & Elman, 1986), and we map its impact on the field in terms of published, electronically available documents that cite the original TRACE paper over a period of 25 years since its publication. We draw conclusions about the general status of computational cognitive modelling and make critical suggestions regarding the nature of abstraction in computational modelling.

scholarly journals Role of Logic in Cognitive Science

Studia Humana ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-30
Author(s):  
Paweł Balcerak
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Propositional Logic ◽  
Nervous Activity ◽  
Human Cognition

Abstract In their work McCulloch and Pitts describe an idea of representing all of nervous activity in terms of propositional logic. This idea was quickly challenged. One of reasons for this challenge was rising believe that logic is unable to describe most of human cognitive processes. In this paper we will analyse premises of original McCulloch and Pitts proposition. Following that, we will ask about ability of symbolic (logical) systems to represent human cognition. We will finish by analysing relation between symbolic and subsymbolic computing, in hope of bridging the gap between the two.

scholarly journals Effects of Animacy in Grammar and Cognition: Introduction to Special Issue

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 260-267
Author(s):  
Virve-Anneli Vihman ◽  
Diane Nelson
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Linguistic Evidence ◽  
Grammatical Structures

AbstractMost, if not all, languages exhibit “animacy effects”: grammatical structures interact with the relative animacy of noun referents, as represented on various versions of animacy scales, with human discourse participants at one end and inanimate objects at the other. Cross-linguistic evidence attests to a range of linguistic phenomena conditioned by animacy, with complex effects requiring (a) subtler distinctions than a binary contrast [± animate] and (b) more sophisticated analyses than mapping higher animacy to higher grammatical role.This paper introduces the Special Issue, “Effects of Animacy in Grammar and Cognition”, in which the linguistic interest in grammatical effects of animacy is aligned with broader questions concerning animacy in cognition, including the origins of animacy in language, the biases underlying how we attend to animacy distinctions and how animacy affects discourse. Recent work in cognitive science and adjacent fields has contributed to the understanding of the role of animacy across linguistic domains. Yet, despite the consensus that sensitivity to animacy is a property central to human cognition, there is no agreement on how to incorporate animacy within linguistic theories. This SI focusses on the cognitive construal of animacy, aiming to extend our understanding of its role in grammar(s) and theory.

Pleasure: A History

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Production ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Scientific Psychology ◽  
Sensory Experiences ◽  
History Of ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Early Islamic

This book challenges received views about pleasures as principally motivating of action, themselves unanalyzable, caused, rather than responsive to reasons, and perhaps because of that, antithetical to rationality by looking to the history of philosophical accounts of pleasure. The book begins by showing how Plato, Aristotle, early Islamic philosophers, and philosophers in the medieval Latin tradition, such as Aquinas, honed in on the challenge unifying the variety of pleasures so that they fall under one concept. In the early modern period, philosophers shift from understanding the logic of pleasure to treating pleasure as a mental state. As the studies of Malebranche, Berkeley, and Kant show, the central problem becomes understanding the relation of pleasure to other sensory experiences and so the role of pleasure in human cognition and knowledge. The Reflections, on visual representations in seventeenth-century classrooms and the difficult music of composers like Bach, demonstrate translation of these concerns to cultural production in the period. As the essay on Mill demonstrates, the nineteenth-century development of scientific psychology narrows the definition of pleasure, and so the philosophical focus. Contemporary accounts of pleasure, in both philosophy and psychology, are now recognizing the limitations of this narrow focus, and once again recognizing the complexity of pleasure and so of its role in human life.

Agency and Structure in Foreign Policy Analysis

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jarrod Hayes
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Policy Analysis ◽  
Relative Weight ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Foreign Policy Analysis ◽  
Structure And Agency ◽  
History Of ◽  
Agency And Structure

For much of the history of the study of international relations, and of foreign policy as a distinctive subfield, scholars have debated the relative weight of agency and structure in shaping the course of international events. Often, the significance of agency versus structure depends on the scope of inquiry. Efforts to identify broad patterns of social interaction tend to play up the significance of structure, while studies of specific events bring agency to the fore. International relations theory is typically associated with the former, and foreign policy analysis (FPA) is more closely linked to the latter. That association suggests that the question of agency versus structure in international outcomes is settled in FPA in favor of agency. An assessment of the literature in FPA shows such a suggestion to be wide of the mark. Not only does FPA struggle with the question of agency versus structure that pervades the study of international relations generally, but also it wrestles with how to reconcile agency and structure in the context of psychological constraints on human cognition. Thus, rather than resolving the debate between agency and structure, the literature on FPA shows that it extends down to the level of individual policymakers. The debate over the role of agency and structure occupies two axes. The first is the engagement of FPA with broader debates over agency and structure in international relations scholarship. The second is the tension between agency and structure in FPA that emerges once psychology is incorporated into the analytical matrix. In both cases, the significance of structure in the actual analysis of foreign policy is far greater than common conception recognizes. This reality means that FPA represents the cutting edge for theoretical and analytical efforts to understand the relationship between structure and agency in international outcomes.

Varieties of embodiment in cognitive science

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolás Alessandroni
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Embodied Cognition ◽  
Multilevel Analysis ◽  
Hierarchical Model ◽  
The Body ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Extended Body ◽  
Philosophical Debates

This article presents an epistemological multilevel analysis of the embodied cognition studies’ programme. It is proposed that within the cognitive-embodied type it is possible to find at least four distinct hypotheses regarding the role of the body in human cognition: (a) body-in-action hypothesis, (b) extended body hypothesis, (c) ecological body hypothesis, and (d) body-as-a-physical-datum hypothesis. The foundations of these hypotheses and some philosophical debates underlying embodiment are discussed in-depth. After briefly addressing the key contributions of social embodied theories, the article presents a hierarchical model that allows for the analysis of the epistemological consequences derived from each embodiment conception. Finally, a prospective epistemological criticism is introduced to provide a comprehensive and contemporary overview of the issue.

Elaborating the role of reflection and individual differences in the study of folk-economic beliefs

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Arceneaux
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Evolutionary History ◽  
Behavioral Responses ◽  
History Of ◽  
Economic Beliefs

AbstractIntuitions guide decision-making, and looking to the evolutionary history of humans illuminates why some behavioral responses are more intuitive than others. Yet a place remains for cognitive processes to second-guess intuitive responses – that is, to be reflective – and individual differences abound in automatic, intuitive processing as well.

Language as a mental travel guide

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles P. Davis ◽  
Gerry T. M. Altmann ◽  
Eiling Yee
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Travel Guide

Abstract Gilead et al.'s approach to human cognition places abstraction and prediction at the heart of “mental travel” under a “representational diversity” perspective that embraces foundational concepts in cognitive science. But, it gives insufficient credit to the possibility that the process of abstraction produces a gradient, and underestimates the importance of a highly influential domain in predictive cognition: language, and related, the emergence of experientially based structure through time.

The role of a family history of adenocarcinomas in patients with Barrett oesophagus

2001 ◽  
Vol 120 (5) ◽  
pp. A442-A442
Author(s):  
P TSIBOURIS ◽  
M HENDRICKSE ◽  
P ISAACS
Keyword(s):  
Family History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Barrett Oesophagus

Protective Factors and Suicidality in Members of Arab Kindred

Crisis ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 80-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sami Hamdan ◽  
Nadine Melhem ◽  
Israel Orbach ◽  
Ilana Farbstein ◽  
Mohammad El-Haib ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Protective Factors ◽  
Suicidal Behavior ◽  
Composite International Diagnostic Interview ◽  
Diagnostic Interview ◽  
Suicidal Risk ◽  
Arab Population ◽  
Psychiatric Interview ◽  
History Of

Background: Relatively little is known about the role of protective factors in an Arab population in the presence of suicidal risk factors. Aims: To examine the role of protective factors in a subsample of in large Arab Kindred participants in the presence of suicidal risk factors. Methods: We assessed protective and risk factors in a sample of 64 participants (16 suicidal and 48 nonsuicidal) between 15 and 55 years of age, using a comprehensive structured psychiatric interview, the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI), self-reported depression, anxiety, hopelessness, impulsivity, hostility, and suicidal behavior in first-degree and second-relatives. We also used the Religiosity Questionnaire and suicide attitude (SUIATT) and multidimensional perceived support scale. Results: Suicidal as opposed to nonsuicidal participants were more likely to have a lifetime history of major depressive disorder (MDD) (68.8% vs. 22.9% χ2 = 11.17, p = .001), an anxiety disorder (87.5% vs. 22.9, χ2 = 21.02, p < .001), or posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (25% vs. 0.0%, Fisher’s, p = .003). Individuals who are otherwise at high risk for suicidality have a much lower risk when they experience higher perceived social support (3.31 ± 1.36 vs. 4.96 ± 1.40, t = 4.10, df = 62, p < .001), and they have the view that suicide is somehow unacceptable (1.83 ± .10 vs. 1.89 ± .07, t = 2.76, df = 60, p = .008). Conclusions: Taken together with other studies, these data suggest that the augmentation of protective factors could play a very important role in the prevention of incidental and recurrent suicidal behavior in Arab populations, where suicidal behavior in increasing rapidly.

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