Barsalou on Perceptual Symbol Systems: BBS Call for Commentary

[Stevan Harnad]

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

        PERCEPTUAL SYMBOL SYSTEMS
  
        by Lawrence W. Barsalou

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
with a WWW browser, anonymous ftp or gopher according to the
instructions that follow after the abstract.
____________________________________________________________________

                        PERCEPTUAL SYMBOL SYSTEMS

                Lawrence W. Barsalou
                Department of Psychology
                Emory University
                Atlanta, GA 30322

                http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~barsalou/
                barsalou at emory.edu

    KEYWORDS: analogue processing, categories, concepts, frames, imagery,
    images, knowledge, perception, representation, sensory-motor
    representations, simulation, symbol grounding, symbol systems

    ABSTRACT: Prior to the twentieth century, theories of knowledge were
    inherently perceptual. Since then, developments in logic, statistics,
    and programming languages have inspired amodal theories that rest on
    principles fundamentally different from those underlying perception. In
    addition, perceptual approaches have become widely viewed as untenable,
    because they are assumed to implement recording systems, not conceptual
    systems. A perceptual theory of knowledge is developed here in the
    contexts of current cognitive science and neuroscience. During
    perceptual experience, association areas in the brain capture bottom-up
    patterns of activation in sensory-motor areas. Later, in a top-down
    manner, association areas partially reactivate sensory-motor areas to
    implement perceptual symbols. The storage and reactivation of
    perceptual symbols operates at the level of perceptual components--not
    at the level of holistic perceptual experiences. Through the use of
    selective attention, schematic representations of perceptual components
    are extracted from experience and stored in memory (e.g., individual
    memories of green, purr, hot). As memories of the same component become
    organized around a common frame, they implement a simulator that
    produces limitless simulations of the component (e.g., simulations of
    purr). Not only do such simulators develop for aspects of sensory
    experience, they also develop for aspects of proprioception (e.g.,
    lift, run) and for introspection (e.g., compare, memory, happy,
    hungry). Once established, these simulators implement a basic
    conceptual system that represents types, supports categorization, and
    produces categorical inferences. These simulators further support
    productivity, propositions, and abstract concepts, thereby implementing
    a fully functional conceptual system. Productivity results from
    integrating simulators combinatorially and recursively to produce
    complex simulations. Propositions result from binding simulators to
    perceived individuals to represent type-token relations. Abstract
    concepts are grounded in complex simulations of combined physical and
    introspective events. Thus, a perceptual theory of knowledge can
    implement a fully functional conceptual system while avoiding what it
    is becoming increasingly apparent would be problems for amodal symbol
    systems. Implications for cognition, neuroscience, evolution,
    development, and artificial intelligence are explored.

--------------------------------------------------------------
To help you decide whether you would be an appropriate commentator for
this article, an electronic draft is retrievable from the World Wide
Web or by anonymous ftp or gopher from the US or UK BBS Archive.
Ftp instructions follow below. 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.

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.barsalou.html
    ftp://ftp.princeton.edu/pub/harnad/BBS/bbs.barsalou
    ftp://ftp.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/pub/bbs/Archive/bbs.barsalou
    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.barsalou
   When you have the file(s) you want, type:
quit