The cognitive mechanisms involved in the “DEGREE ADVERB + PROPER NAME” construction: Evaluating proposals from Construction Grammar and Formal Semantics

There are broad disagreements between existing models regarding the mental representations and processes involved in the "DEGREE ADVERB + PROPER NAME" construction, including disagreements regarding the semantics of the degree device, the category status of the proper name, the construction’s expressed meaning and its (non-)compositionality, and, crucially, the operation that holds between the degree device and the proper name. Our corpus-based investigation into two competing models from Construction Grammar and Formal Semantics shows that these models collectively make useful contributions to the scientific understanding of this construction, but neither is empirically adequate. Most importantly, we find that the construction participates in several non-predicted expressed meanings; multivariate analyses show that the three amenable to statistical analysis cluster with different semantic usage-features. We argue that the best way to account for the construction’s semantics-pragmatics is via a previously-dismissed cognitive mechanism: an enrichment-/strengthening-type operation whereby a pragmatically-supplied scale is added to the message.

Understanding Memories of the Past in the Context of Different Complex Neural Network Architectures

Deep learning (primarily using backpropagation) and neuroevolution are the preeminent methods of optimizing artificial neural networks. However, they often create black boxes that are as hard to understand as the natural brains they seek to mimic. Previous work has identified an information-theoretic tool, referred to as R, which allows us to quantify and identify mental representations in artificial cognitive systems. The use of such measures has allowed us to make previous black boxes more transparent. Here we extend R to not only identify where complex computational systems store memory about their environment but also to differentiate between different time points in the past. We show how this extended measure can identify the location of memory related to past experiences in neural networks optimized by deep learning as well as a genetic algorithm.

Integration of Sexual and Relational Mental Representations in Autobiographical Memories is Associated with Sexual Well-Being

Determinants of sexual well-being have often been identified as sexual and relational satisfaction, which both include a focus on partner relationship. Such a conceptualization excludes sexually active single individuals, while confusing sexual and relational satisfaction with sexual well-being as both determinant and outcome. In the present research, we propose an intrapersonal perspective focused on cognitive sexual and relational mental representations as determinants of sexual well-being. Based on behavioral systems theory, we suggest that a high level of integration of sexual and relational mental representations should be associated with sexual well-being indicators, whereas a weaker level of integration should correspond to a lower level of sexual well-being. We developed a novel codification scheme to measure the cognitive integration of sexual and relational mental representations in narratives of sexual autobiographical memories. We examined its associations with sexual well-being indicators (satisfaction, passion, and sociosexuality). In a sample of 142 students, results showed that integration of sexual and relational representations in memories was positively associated with sexual satisfaction and harmonious passion, and negatively with obsessive passion and sociosexual desire. Results suggest that an integrated cognitive organization of sexual and relational mental representations in autobiographical memories can reflect a greater sexual wellbeing. Clinical implications are discussed.

Redundancy and reducibility in the formats of spatial representations

Mental representations are the essence of cognition. Yet, to understand how the mind works, we must understand not just the content of mental representations (i.e., what information is stored), but also the format of those representations (i.e., how that information is stored). But what does it mean for representations to be formatted? How many formats are there? Is it possible that the mind represents some pieces of information in multiple formats at once? To address these questions, I discuss a ‘case study’ of representational format: the representation of spatial location. I review work (a) across species and across development, (b) across spatial scales, and (c) across levels of analysis (e.g., high-level cognitive format vs. low-level neural format). Along the way, I discuss the possibility that the same information may be organized in multiple formats simultaneously (e.g., that locations may be represented in both Cartesian and polar coordinates). Ultimately, I argue that seemingly ‘redundant’ formats may support the flexible spatial behavior observed in humans, and that we should approach the study of all mental representations with this possibility in mind.

Computational reconstruction of mental representations using human behavior

Revealing the contents of mental representations is a longstanding goal of cognitive science. However, there is currently no general framework for providing direct access to representations of high-level visual concepts. We asked participants to indicate what they perceived in images synthesized from random visual features in a deep neural network. We then inferred a mapping between the semantic features of their responses and the visual features of the images. This allowed us to reconstruct the mental representation of virtually any common visual concept, both those reported and others extrapolated from the same semantic space. We successfully validated 270 of these reconstructions as containing the target concept in a separate group of participants. The visual-semantic mapping uncovered with our method further generalized to new stimuli, participants, and tasks. Finally, it allowed us to reveal how the representations of individual observers differ from each other and from those of neural networks.

Orthographic Learning

This chapter discusses orthographic learning, i.e., how children learn the relation between their spoken language and writing system. The process is discussed for children learning to read and write in one language, as well as for multilingual children acquiring literacy in more than one language. In both cases, the developmental course is mapped from children's first insights into the form and function of their writing systems to the development of word-specific mental representations that code for multiple linguistic forms (i.e., sound, spelling, and meaning). The chapter concludes with instructional recommendations for supporting children's orthographic learning throughout development.

O modularności reprezentacji i procesów umysłowych (w języku i nie tylko)

Pojęcie modułu i modularności, często używane w aktualnym dyskursie naukowym, dotyczącym m.in. reprezentacji językowych i procesów ich przetwarzania, jest bardzo szerokie. W niniejszym artykule podjęto próbę rozgraniczenia różnych spojrzeń na modularność i odpowiedzi na pytania: Czym jest moduł? W jaki sposób można identyfikować moduły umysłowe i ustalić ich funkcjonalne relacje między sobą? Jakie problemy wiążą się z przyjęciem modularności reprezentacji umysłowych bez równoczesnego przyjęcia modularności ich przetwarzania? On the modularity of representation and mental processes (in language and beyond) Summary: The notion of module and modularity, used frequently in contemporary academic discourse that is related to linguistic representation and language processing, is rather broad. In this paper, an attempt has been made to differentiate between various views on modularity, and to answer the following questions: What is a module? How can we identify cognitive modules and establish their functional interrelations? What problems might arise from assuming the existence of the modularity of mental representations, without simultaneously accepting the modularity of their processing?

Integrative Psychotherapy With Physicians In the Trenches: Convergence of Cognitive, Existential, and Psychodynamic Processes

In this article, I present insights gleaned from over a decade of working in therapy with physicians in the trenches who practice at general hospitals located in an area afflicted by the community and political violence, and recently, by the COVID-19 pandemic. Psychotherapy with these physicians requires an integrative psychotherapeutic approach that heeds their changing needs. Espousing cognitive-existential psychodynamics (CEP), a theory-based psychotherapeutic perspective developed for complex cases, I show how cognitive, existential, and psychodynamic processes strongly converge during the treatment of physicians in the trenches. Such convergence is manifested in issues of mental representations (of death, medicine, and the hospital) and choice/meaning.