Embodied Cognition: BBS Call for Commentators

[Stevan Harnad]

    Below is the abstract of a forthcoming BBS target article on:

        DEICTIC CODES FOR THE EMBODIMENT OF COGNITION
        by Dana H. Ballard, Mary M. Hayhoe, Polly K. Pook,
        & Rajesh P. N. Rao

This article has been accepted for publication in Behavioral and Brain
Sciences (BBS), an international, interdisciplinary journal providing
Open Peer Commentary on important and controversial current research in
the biobehavioral and cognitive sciences.

Commentators must be BBS Associates or nominated by a BBS Associate. To
be considered as a commentator for this article, to suggest other
appropriate commentators, or for information about how to become a BBS
Associate, please send EMAIL to:

    bbs at cogsci.soton.ac.uk 

      or write to:

    Behavioral and Brain Sciences
    Department of Psychology
    University of Southampton
    Highfield, Southampton
    SO17 1BJ UNITED KINGDOM

    http://www.princeton.edu/~harnad/bbs/
    http://www.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/bbs/
    ftp://ftp.princeton.edu/pub/harnad/BBS/
    ftp://ftp.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/pub/bbs/
    gopher://gopher.princeton.edu:70/11/.libraries/.pujournals

If you are not a BBS Associate, please send your CV and the name of a
BBS Associate (there are currently over 10,000 worldwide) who is
familiar with your work. All past BBS authors, referees and commentators
are eligible to become BBS Associates.

To help us put together a balanced list of commentators, please give
some indication of the aspects of the topic on which you would bring
your areas of expertise to bear if you were selected as a commentator.
An electronic draft of the full text is available for inspection by
anonymous ftp (or gopher or world-wide-web) according to the
instructions that follow after the abstract.
____________________________________________________________________

                DEICTIC CODES FOR THE EMBODIMENT OF COGNITION

                Dana H. Ballard, Mary M. Hayhoe, Polly K. Pook,
                and Rajesh P. N. Rao

                Computer Science Department
                University of Rochester
                Rochester, NY 14627, USA
                {dana, mary, pook, rao}@cs.rochester.edu

    KEYWORDS: deictic computations; embodiment; working memory;
    natural tasks; eye movements; brain computation; binding;
    sensory-motor tasks; pointers.

    ABSTRACT: To describe phenomena that occur at different time
    scales, computational models of the brain must necessarily
    incorporate different levels of abstraction. We argue that at time
    scales of approximately one-third of a second, orienting movements
    of the body play a crucial role in cognition and form a useful
    computational level. This level is more abstract than that used to
    capture neural phenomena yet is framed at a level of abstraction
    below that traditionally used to study high-level cognitive
    processes such as reasoning. We term this level the embodiment
    level. At the embodiment level, the constraints of the physical
    system determine the nature of cognitive operations. The key
    synergy is that, at time scales of about one-third second, the
    natural sequentiality of body movements can be matched to the
    natural computational economies of sequential decision systems. The
    way this is done is through a system of implicit reference termed
    deictic, whereby pointing movements are used to bind objects in the
    world to cognitive programs. The focus of this paper is to study
    how deictic bindings enable the solution of natural tasks. We show
    how deictic computation provides a mechanism for representing the
    essential features that link external sensory data with internal
    cognitive programs and motor actions. In particular, we argue that
    one of the central features of cognition, working memory, can be
    related to moment-by-moment dispositions of body features such as
    eye movements and hand movements.

--------------------------------------------------------------
To help you decide whether you would be an appropriate commentator for
this article, an electronic draft is retrievable by anonymous ftp from
ftp.princeton.edu according to the instructions below (the filename is
bbs.ballard). Please do not prepare a commentary on this draft.
Just let us know, after having inspected it, what relevant expertise
you feel you would bring to bear on what aspect of the article.
-------------------------------------------------------------
These files are also on the World Wide Web and the easiest way to
retrieve them is with Netscape, Mosaic, gopher, archie, veronica, etc.
Here are some of the URLs you can use to get to the BBS Archive:

    http://www.princeton.edu/~harnad/bbs/
    http://www.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/bbs/Archive/bbs.ballard.html
    ftp://ftp.princeton.edu/pub/harnad/BBS/bbs.ballard
    ftp://ftp.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/pub/bbs/Archive/bbs.ballard
    gopher://gopher.princeton.edu:70/11/.libraries/.pujournals

To retrieve a file by ftp from an Internet site, type either:
ftp ftp.princeton.edu
   or
ftp 128.112.128.1
   When you are asked for your login, type:
anonymous
   Enter password as queried (your password is your actual userid:
   yourlogin at yourhost.whatever.whatever - be sure to include the "@")
cd /pub/harnad/BBS
   To show the available files, type:
ls
   Next, retrieve the file you want with (for example):
get bbs.ballard
   When you have the file(s) you want, type:
quit

----------