van der Velde & de Kamps/Neural blackboard architectures: BBS Call for Commentators

[Behavioral & Brain Sciences]

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Below the proposal instructions please find the abstract, keywords, and a link
to the full text of the forthcoming BBS target article:
   
"Neural blackboard architectures of combinatorial structures in cognition"

                Frank van der Velde and Marc de Kamps

http://www.bbsonline.org/Preprints/VanderVelde-11132003/Referees/


This article has been accepted for publication in Behavioral and
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                   COMMENTARY PROPOSAL INSTRUCTIONS
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  Please reply by EMAIL to  <calls at bbsonline.org>  by March 24, 2005


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                    *** TARGET ARTICLE INFORMATION ***
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TITLE: Neural blackboard architectures of combinatorial structures in cognition

AUTHORS: Frank van der Velde and Marc de Kamps

ABSTRACT: Human cognition is unique in the way in which it relies on
combinatorial (or compositional) structures. Language provides ample evidence
for the existence of combinatorial structures, but they can also be found in
visual cognition. To understand the neural basis of human cognition, it is
therefore essential to understand how combinatorial structures can be
instantiated in neural terms. In his recent book on the foundations of
language, Jackendoff described four fundamental problems for a neural
instantiation of combinatorial structures: the massiveness of the binding
problem, the problem of 2, the problem of variables and the transformation of
combinatorial structures from working memory to long-term memory. This paper
aims to show that these problems can be solved by means of neural 'blackboard'
architectures. For this purpose, a neural blackboard architecture for sentence
structure is presented. In this architecture, neural structures that encode
for words are temporarily bound in a manner that preserves the structure of
the sentence. It is shown that the architecture solves the four problems
presented by Jackendoff. The ability of the architecture to instantiate
sentence structures is illustrated with examples of sentence complexity
observed in human language performance. Similarities exist between the
architecture for sentence structure and blackboard architectures for
combinatorial structures in visual cognition, derived from the structure of
the visual cortex. These architectures are briefly discussed, together with an
example of a combinatorial structure in which the blackboard architectures for
language and vision are combined. In this way, the architecture for language
is grounded in perception. Perspectives and potential developments of the
architectures are discussed.

KEYWORDS: Binding, blackboard architectures, combinatorial structure,
compositionality, language, dynamic system, neurocognition, sentence complexity,
sentence structure, working memory, variables, vision

FULL TEXT: http://www.bbsonline.org/Preprints/VanderVelde-11132003/Referees/


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

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Behavioral and Brain Sciences
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