Steels & Belpaeme/Coordinating Perceptually Grounded Categories through Language: BBS Call for Commentators

[Behavioral & Brain Sciences]

Below the instructions please find the abstract, keywords, and full text
link to the forthcoming BBS target article:

                 Coordinating Perceptually Grounded 
                     Categories through Language. 
                       A Case Study for Colour.              
         
                                  by
  
                     Luc Steels and Tony Belpaeme

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.

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                       ** IMPORTANT **
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                   *** TARGET ARTICLE INFORMATION ***
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TITLE:  Coordinating Perceptually Grounded Categories through Language. A Case
Study for Colour.

AUTHORS: Luc Steels and Tony Belpaeme

ABSTRACT: The paper proposes a number of models to examine through what mechanisms
a population of autonomous agents could arrive at a repertoire of perceptually
grounded categories that is sufficiently shared to allow successful communication.
The models are inspired by the main approaches to human categorisation being
discussed in the literature: nativism, empiricism, and culturalism. Colour is
taken as a case study. Although the paper takes no stance on which position is to
be accepted as final truth with respect to human categorisation and naming, it
points to theoretical constraints that make each position more or less likely and
contains clear suggestions on what the best engineering solution would be.
Specifically, it argues that the collective choice of a shared repertoire must
integrate multiple constraints, including constraints coming from communication.

KEYWORDS: Autonomous agents, symbol grounding, colour categorisation, colour
naming, genetic evolution, connectionism, memes, cultural evolution,
self-organisation, origins of language, semiotic dynamics

FULL TEXT: http://www.bbsonline.org/Preprints/Steels-09262002/Referees/


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                 *** SUPPLEMENTARY ANNOUNCEMENT ***

(1) Call for Book Nominations for BBS Multiple Book Review

    In the past, Behavioral and Brain Sciences (BBS) had only been able
    to do 1-2 BBS multiple book treatments per year, because of our
    limited annual page quota. BBS's new expanded page quota will make
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    would like to see accorded BBS multiple book review.

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    potential reviewers would be the best evidence of its potential
    impact!).


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Paul Bloom - Editor

Behavioral and Brain Sciences
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