Topics in Cognitive Science最新文献

A recurrent problem in lexical semantics is how "deep" the analysis of words and phrases should be. We argue for a deeper analysis of lexical meanings and for relatively rich representations. In particular, we argue that meanings do not form a homogeneous class of mental representations. Rather, they draw on intricate combinations of material from a number of independent domains, each with its own computational affordances. Also, many words can only be characterized in terms of larger frames of knowledge. Frames often encode cultural conventions, as in the case of shortstop, which can only be understood in the context of the frame of the description of a baseball game. In other words, the system of word meanings is heterogeneous in two ways: in terms of domains and in terms of the forms of representation.

Standard models of lexical production assume that speakers access representations of meaning, grammar, and different aspects of sound in a roughly sequential manner (whether or not they admit cascading or interactivity). In contrast, we review evidence for a parallel activation model in which these representations are accessed in parallel. According to this account, word learning involves the binding of the meaning, grammar, and sound of a word into a single representation. This representation is then activated as a whole during production, and so all linguistic components are available simultaneously. We then note that language comprehension involves extensive use of prediction and argue that comprehenders use production mechanisms to determine (roughly) what they would say next if they were speaking. So far, theories of prediction-by-production have assumed sequential lexical production. We therefore reinterpret such evidence in terms of parallel lexical production.

We argue that Jackendoff's Parallel Architecture (PA) is the right way to think about the architecture of the language faculty. The critical property of this architecture is that it allows for genuine explanation by allocating different aspects of linguistic phenomena to appropriate corresponding representations and capacities. The PA forms the basis of a minimalist explanatory program for linguistic theory in the form of Simpler Syntax, emphasizing its constructional approach to syntax and the independence of semantics, phonology, and nonlinguistic cognitive systems.

The Parallel Architecture is a conception of the organization of the mental representations involved in language and of the role of language in the mind as a whole. Its basic premise is that linguistic representations draw on three independent generative systems-phonological, syntactic, and semantic structures-plus a system of interface links by which they communicate with each other. In particular, words serve as partial interface links that govern the way they compose into novel sentences. It is shown that this architecture also provides a natural way to account for our ability to talk about what we see: semantic structure in language has to communicate via interface links with a level of spatial representation that encodes understanding of the physical world. It is suggested that such configurations of independent but linked representations are a widespread feature of cognition.

This study investigates the cultural transmission of mushroom knowledge through an iterated learning paradigm, focusing on how content-based and model-based biases shape transmission across generations. Norwegian participants, predominantly mycophobic, were arranged in seven linear transmission chains of eight generations each, interacting in dyads. A trained confederate provided initial information about 24 mushrooms regarding edibility (poisonous/edible/inedible), accompanying facts (death/survival/neutral), and the information source's familiarity (familiar/unfamiliar). Results revealed a strong bias toward labeling mushrooms as poisonous, reflecting cultural caution. Model-based biases (familiarity) did not significantly influence transmission, while content-based biases (fact type) affected early fidelity, especially survival-related facts. Over generations, details beyond edibility were progressively lost, with transmission converging on simplified edibility judgments. This suggests cumulative cultural simplification prioritizing survival-relevant information. These findings imply that cultural attitudes influence the transmission of high-risk content, amplifying caution across generations. Despite limitations, this study offers novel empirical data on mushroom knowledge transmission in a mycophobic context and lays the groundwork for cross-cultural comparisons with mycophilic societies.

The majority of Pleistocene figurative cave art in Western Europe consists of line drawings depicting large herbivores from the side view, and outlines were sometimes abbreviated to the head-neck-dorsal line. It is often assumed that the side view was used because it facilitates animal recognition compared to other views, and that abbreviated outlines were used as an economic mode of representation compared to complete outlines. To investigate these claims, we present an ecological approach to picture perception and discuss its implications for the study of cave art. We then report an experiment conducted to examine the roles of perspective and abbreviation in cave art in relation to two roles: communicating about specific animals and inducing aesthetic appreciation. Participants were shown outlines of animals (bison, horse, hind, and ibex), which varied in terms of perspective (frontal, fronto-oblique, side, rear-oblique, or rear view) and abbreviation (complete or abbreviated). They were instructed to quickly identify them and to rate their aesthetic value. We found that side and oblique views provide equivalent information, equally facilitating recognition and inducing aesthetic appreciation; and that the information from the side and oblique views is richer than the frontal and rear views. We also found that complete outlines facilitate recognition and induce more aesthetic appreciation compared to abbreviated outlines. Contrary to common assumptions, side views are not simply motivated by ease of recognition. Facts of ecological optics, production effort, and available drawing techniques must also be considered. Abbreviation may also be contingent on participation in a shared history of communicative practices and on production effort, as its possible prevalence further from cave entrances might partly be motivated by the need to draw quickly, as the light was scarce. Our experimental results point to a complex interplay of perceptual, technical, and cultural factors in the development of early figurative art and show how an ecological approach to (picture) perception can bring new insights to inform these discussions.

It has been argued that fungi have cognitive capacities, and even conscious experiences. While these arguments risk ushering in unproductive disputes about how words like "mind," "cognitive," "sentient," and "conscious" should be used, paying close attention to key properties of fungal life can also be uncontroversially productive for cognitive science. Attention to fungal life can, for example, inspire new, potentially fruitful directions of research in cognitive science. Here, I introduce a concept of cognitive symbiosis whose significance for cognitive science becomes salient when we consider the centrality of symbioses in the life of fungi. Like fungi, virtually all cognitive systems live in close association with other kinds of cognitive systems, and this living together can have substantive psychological consequences. Expanding the scope of cognitive science to study a wide variety of cognitive symbioses underwrites the importance of biology and evolution in understanding minds.

Are people able to tell apart a random configuration of lines and dots from a work of art? Previous studies have shown that untrained viewers can distinguish between abstract art made by professional artists, children, or apes. Pieces made by artists were perceived as more intentionally made and organized than the rest. However, these studies used paintings by prominent abstract artists (e.g., Mark Rothko) as stimuli, which in any case showed that people were able to recognize high-quality paintings made by trained artists, not "any" human. In this study, we presented participants with artworks by untrained human artists versus artworks made by captive chimpanzees in a visual discrimination task. In Study 1, participants viewed sets of human- and non-human-made paintings and were asked to identify the artist as human or ape. In Study 2, they rated the paintings on several criteria: intentionality, organization, balance, and complexity. We found that participants: (1) successfully distinguished between human-made and non-human-made paintings; (2) reported perceiving more balance, organization, and intentionality in human-made paintings; (3) preferred stimuli, which ranked higher in intentionality. We also identified balance, complexity, and organization as key features that influence preference for abstract artworks. Overall, our results show that even non-figurative paintings made by adults untrained in the visual arts are perceived as intentionally made, suggesting people spontaneously produce and perceive cues of intentionality, generating an implicit human signature in visual art.

Contextual information and prior knowledge facilitate perceptual processing, improving our recognition of even distorted or obstructed visual inputs. As a result, neuronal processing elicited by identical sensory inputs varies depending on the context in which we encounter those inputs. This modulation is in line with predictive processing accounts of vision, which suggest that higher brain areas use internal models of the world to interpret sensory inputs. Cortical feedback signals encoding predictions about those inputs are propagated back down to sensory areas. As such, acquiring knowledge should enhance the internal models that we use to resolve sensory ambiguities, and feedback signals should encode more accurate estimates of sensory inputs. We investigated how knowledge updates contextual feedback processing in V1 by first generating Mooney images, ambiguous two-tone images which are difficult to recognize without prior knowledge of the image content. Across two behavioral experiments and one 3T functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment, participants acquired knowledge either related to the general Mooney image category or Mooney image-specific information. During fMRI, we used partially occluded Mooney images to investigate if contextual feedback signals in early visual areas are modulated after acquiring a high-level interpretation of the images. We show that general information about image categories is sufficient to improve recognition of ambiguous images. We also show that perceptual priors containing image-specific information modulate contextual feedback processing in the early visual areas, in response to previously ambiguous images.

Language is perhaps the most complex and sophisticated of cognitive faculties in humans. The neurobiological basis of language in the healthy, aging brain remains a relatively neglected topic, in particular with respect to basic aspects of grammar and meaning. In the face of major changes to the physiological infrastructure underpinning perception and higher cognition, core language functions are frequently retained in the elderly. Meanwhile, neurolinguistic models of language are often tested and refined with reference to system abnormalities (as in cases of language deficits or aphasias), but rarely with reference to the aging brain. This article outlines some major developmental stages in the neural architecture of language, and reviews the current state-of-the-art in research concerning how aging can result in distinct neural signatures of language. Certain differences in basic phrase and sentence processing strategies between children, young adults, and older adults can partly be explained by neurophysiological differences, and also divergences in core components of brain rhythms. Particular focus is placed here on spatiotemporal dynamics and neural oscillations, inter-brain coupling, 1/f neural noise, and neural entrainment. Exploring how language function changes with age can ultimately provide insights into the maturation and decay of basic properties of cortical computation.