Michael Spivey
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195170788
- eISBN:
- 9780199786831
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195170788.001.0001
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience
The cognitive and neural sciences have been on the brink of a paradigm shift for over a decade. This book is intended to help galvanize the forces of dynamical systems theory, cognitive and ...
More
The cognitive and neural sciences have been on the brink of a paradigm shift for over a decade. This book is intended to help galvanize the forces of dynamical systems theory, cognitive and computational neuroscience, connectionism, and ecological psychology that are needed to complete this paradigm shift. The book lays bare the fact that comprehending a spoken sentence, understanding a visual scene, or just thinking about the day's events involves the serial coalescing of different neuronal activation patterns, i.e., a state-space trajectory that flirts with a series of point attractors. As a result, the brain cannot help but spend most of its time instantiating patterns of activity that are in between identifiable mental states rather than in them. The chapters are arranged to present a systematic overview of how perception, cognition, and action are partially overlapping segments of one continuous mental flow, rather than three distinct mental systems. The early chapters provide experiential demonstrations of the gray areas in mental activity that happen in between discretely labeled mental events, as well as geometric visualizations of attractors in state space that make the dynamical-systems framework seem less mathematically abstract. The middle chapters present scores of behavioral and neurophysiological studies that portray the continuous temporal dynamics inherent in categorization, language comprehension, visual perception, as well as attention, action, and reasoning. The final chapters conclude with discussions of what the mind itself must look like if its activity is continuous in time and its contents are distributed in state space.Less
The cognitive and neural sciences have been on the brink of a paradigm shift for over a decade. This book is intended to help galvanize the forces of dynamical systems theory, cognitive and computational neuroscience, connectionism, and ecological psychology that are needed to complete this paradigm shift. The book lays bare the fact that comprehending a spoken sentence, understanding a visual scene, or just thinking about the day's events involves the serial coalescing of different neuronal activation patterns, i.e., a state-space trajectory that flirts with a series of point attractors. As a result, the brain cannot help but spend most of its time instantiating patterns of activity that are in between identifiable mental states rather than in them. The chapters are arranged to present a systematic overview of how perception, cognition, and action are partially overlapping segments of one continuous mental flow, rather than three distinct mental systems. The early chapters provide experiential demonstrations of the gray areas in mental activity that happen in between discretely labeled mental events, as well as geometric visualizations of attractors in state space that make the dynamical-systems framework seem less mathematically abstract. The middle chapters present scores of behavioral and neurophysiological studies that portray the continuous temporal dynamics inherent in categorization, language comprehension, visual perception, as well as attention, action, and reasoning. The final chapters conclude with discussions of what the mind itself must look like if its activity is continuous in time and its contents are distributed in state space.
Jan Westerhoff
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- May 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199285044
- eISBN:
- 9780191713699
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199285044.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
The concept of an ontological category is central to metaphysics. Metaphysicians argue about which category an object should be assigned to, whether one category can be reduced to another one, or ...
More
The concept of an ontological category is central to metaphysics. Metaphysicians argue about which category an object should be assigned to, whether one category can be reduced to another one, or whether there might be different equally adequate systems of categorization. Answers to these questions presuppose a clear understanding of what precisely an ontological category is, an issue which is rarely addressed. This book presents an analysis both of the use made of ontological categories in the metaphysical literature, and of various attempts at defining them. It also develops a new theory of ontological categories which implies that there will be no unique system, and that the ontological category an object belongs to is not an essential property of that object. Systems of ontological categories are structures imposed on the world, rather than reflections of a deep metaphysical reality already present.Less
The concept of an ontological category is central to metaphysics. Metaphysicians argue about which category an object should be assigned to, whether one category can be reduced to another one, or whether there might be different equally adequate systems of categorization. Answers to these questions presuppose a clear understanding of what precisely an ontological category is, an issue which is rarely addressed. This book presents an analysis both of the use made of ontological categories in the metaphysical literature, and of various attempts at defining them. It also develops a new theory of ontological categories which implies that there will be no unique system, and that the ontological category an object belongs to is not an essential property of that object. Systems of ontological categories are structures imposed on the world, rather than reflections of a deep metaphysical reality already present.
Edouard Machery
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195306880
- eISBN:
- 9780199867950
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195306880.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind
Over recent years, the psychology of concepts has been rejuvenated by new work on prototypes, inventive ideas on causal cognition, the development of neo-empiricist theories of concepts, and the ...
More
Over recent years, the psychology of concepts has been rejuvenated by new work on prototypes, inventive ideas on causal cognition, the development of neo-empiricist theories of concepts, and the inputs of the budding neuropsychology of concepts. But our empirical knowledge about concepts has yet to be organized in a coherent framework. This book argues that the dominant psychological theories of concepts fail to provide such a framework and that drastic conceptual changes are required to make sense of the research on concepts in psychology and neuropsychology. The book shows that the class of concepts divides into several distinct kinds that have little in common with one another and that for this very reason, it is a mistake to attempt to encompass all known phenomena within a single theory of concepts. In brief, concepts are not a natural kind. The book concludes that the theoretical notion of concept should be eliminated from the theoretical apparatus of contemporary psychology and should be replaced with theoretical notions that are more appropriate for fulfilling psychologists' goals. The notion of concept has encouraged psychologists to believe that a single theory of concepts could be developed, leading to useless theoretical controversies between the dominant paradigms of concepts. Keeping this notion would slow down, and maybe prevent, the development of a more adequate classification and would overshadow the theoretical and empirical issues that are raised by this more adequate classification.Less
Over recent years, the psychology of concepts has been rejuvenated by new work on prototypes, inventive ideas on causal cognition, the development of neo-empiricist theories of concepts, and the inputs of the budding neuropsychology of concepts. But our empirical knowledge about concepts has yet to be organized in a coherent framework. This book argues that the dominant psychological theories of concepts fail to provide such a framework and that drastic conceptual changes are required to make sense of the research on concepts in psychology and neuropsychology. The book shows that the class of concepts divides into several distinct kinds that have little in common with one another and that for this very reason, it is a mistake to attempt to encompass all known phenomena within a single theory of concepts. In brief, concepts are not a natural kind. The book concludes that the theoretical notion of concept should be eliminated from the theoretical apparatus of contemporary psychology and should be replaced with theoretical notions that are more appropriate for fulfilling psychologists' goals. The notion of concept has encouraged psychologists to believe that a single theory of concepts could be developed, leading to useless theoretical controversies between the dominant paradigms of concepts. Keeping this notion would slow down, and maybe prevent, the development of a more adequate classification and would overshadow the theoretical and empirical issues that are raised by this more adequate classification.
Regina Pustet
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199258505
- eISBN:
- 9780191717727
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199258505.001.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Semantics and Pragmatics, Syntax and Morphology
Copulas (in English, the verb to be) are conventionally defined functionally as a means of relating elements of clause structure, especially subject and complement, and considered to be semantically ...
More
Copulas (in English, the verb to be) are conventionally defined functionally as a means of relating elements of clause structure, especially subject and complement, and considered to be semantically empty or meaningless. They have received relatively little attention from linguists. This book goes some way towards correcting this neglect. In doing so it takes issue with both accepted definition and description. The book presents an analysis of grammatical descriptions of more than 160 languages drawn from the language families of the world. The book shows that some languages have a single copula, others several, and some none at all. In a series of statistical analyses it seeks to explain why by linking the distribution of copulas to variations in lexical categorization and syntactic structure. The book concludes by advancing a comprehensive theory of copularization which it relates to language classification and to theories of language change, notably grammaticalization.Less
Copulas (in English, the verb to be) are conventionally defined functionally as a means of relating elements of clause structure, especially subject and complement, and considered to be semantically empty or meaningless. They have received relatively little attention from linguists. This book goes some way towards correcting this neglect. In doing so it takes issue with both accepted definition and description. The book presents an analysis of grammatical descriptions of more than 160 languages drawn from the language families of the world. The book shows that some languages have a single copula, others several, and some none at all. In a series of statistical analyses it seeks to explain why by linking the distribution of copulas to variations in lexical categorization and syntactic structure. The book concludes by advancing a comprehensive theory of copularization which it relates to language classification and to theories of language change, notably grammaticalization.
Theo Van Leeuwen
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195323306
- eISBN:
- 9780199869251
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195323306.003.0008
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics
This chapter adapts the framework for analyzing the representation of social actors (cf. chapter 2) to the domain of visual communication. After discussing the critical import of analyzing ...
More
This chapter adapts the framework for analyzing the representation of social actors (cf. chapter 2) to the domain of visual communication. After discussing the critical import of analyzing orientational dimensions of visual imagery such as the gaze, social distance, and angle, the chapter discusses the exclusion of social actors from visual discourses, the way images can allocate roles to social actors, the way images can represent social actors specifically or generically, and as individuals (individualization) or groups (assimilation), and the ways in which images can categorize social actors (biological and cultural categorization). To bring out its potential for critical discourse analysis, the framework is used in an analysis of white representations of blacks.Less
This chapter adapts the framework for analyzing the representation of social actors (cf. chapter 2) to the domain of visual communication. After discussing the critical import of analyzing orientational dimensions of visual imagery such as the gaze, social distance, and angle, the chapter discusses the exclusion of social actors from visual discourses, the way images can allocate roles to social actors, the way images can represent social actors specifically or generically, and as individuals (individualization) or groups (assimilation), and the ways in which images can categorize social actors (biological and cultural categorization). To bring out its potential for critical discourse analysis, the framework is used in an analysis of white representations of blacks.
Steven Sloman
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195183115
- eISBN:
- 9780199870950
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195183115.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind
Human beings are active agents who can think. To understand how thought serves action requires understanding how people conceive of the relation between cause and effect, between action and outcome. ...
More
Human beings are active agents who can think. To understand how thought serves action requires understanding how people conceive of the relation between cause and effect, between action and outcome. This book presents the question, in cognitive terms: how do people construct and reason with the causal models we use to represent our world? A revolution is occurring in how statisticians, philosophers, and computer scientists answer this question. Those fields have ushered in new insights about causal models by thinking about how to represent causal structure mathematically, in a framework that uses graphs and probability theory to develop what are called causal Bayesian networks. The framework starts with the idea that the purpose of causal structure is to understand and predict the effects of intervention. How does intervening on one thing affect other things? This is not a question merely about probability (or logic), but about action. The framework offers a new understanding of mind: thought is about the effects of intervention and cognition is thus intimately tied to actions that take place either in the actual physical world or in imagination, in counterfactual worlds. This book offers a conceptual introduction to the key mathematical ideas, presenting them in a non-technical way, focusing on the intuitions rather than the theorems. It tries to show why the ideas are important to understanding how people explain things and why thinking not only about the world as it is but the world as it could be is so central to human action. The book reviews the role of causality, causal models, and intervention in the basic human cognitive functions: decision making, reasoning, judgment, categorization, inductive inference, language, and learning. In short, the book offers a discussion about how people think, talk, learn, and explain things in causal terms, in terms of action and manipulation.Less
Human beings are active agents who can think. To understand how thought serves action requires understanding how people conceive of the relation between cause and effect, between action and outcome. This book presents the question, in cognitive terms: how do people construct and reason with the causal models we use to represent our world? A revolution is occurring in how statisticians, philosophers, and computer scientists answer this question. Those fields have ushered in new insights about causal models by thinking about how to represent causal structure mathematically, in a framework that uses graphs and probability theory to develop what are called causal Bayesian networks. The framework starts with the idea that the purpose of causal structure is to understand and predict the effects of intervention. How does intervening on one thing affect other things? This is not a question merely about probability (or logic), but about action. The framework offers a new understanding of mind: thought is about the effects of intervention and cognition is thus intimately tied to actions that take place either in the actual physical world or in imagination, in counterfactual worlds. This book offers a conceptual introduction to the key mathematical ideas, presenting them in a non-technical way, focusing on the intuitions rather than the theorems. It tries to show why the ideas are important to understanding how people explain things and why thinking not only about the world as it is but the world as it could be is so central to human action. The book reviews the role of causality, causal models, and intervention in the basic human cognitive functions: decision making, reasoning, judgment, categorization, inductive inference, language, and learning. In short, the book offers a discussion about how people think, talk, learn, and explain things in causal terms, in terms of action and manipulation.
Steven Sloman
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195183115
- eISBN:
- 9780199870950
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195183115.003.0009
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind
The objects that we select and how we put them together depend on our current goals, the task before us, and on our language and culture. It may be argued that concepts are not fixed, stable entities ...
More
The objects that we select and how we put them together depend on our current goals, the task before us, and on our language and culture. It may be argued that concepts are not fixed, stable entities in the mind. Nevertheless, people do bring general knowledge to bear to understand objects and events. This chapter focuses on the structure of that general knowledge, in particular, on its causal structure. Research is presented that uses a variety of measures of categorization. The most frequent is naming — objects are assumed to belong in the same category if they are called by the same name.Less
The objects that we select and how we put them together depend on our current goals, the task before us, and on our language and culture. It may be argued that concepts are not fixed, stable entities in the mind. Nevertheless, people do bring general knowledge to bear to understand objects and events. This chapter focuses on the structure of that general knowledge, in particular, on its causal structure. Research is presented that uses a variety of measures of categorization. The most frequent is naming — objects are assumed to belong in the same category if they are called by the same name.
JAMES W. FERNANDEZ
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197262795
- eISBN:
- 9780191753954
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197262795.003.0011
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This chapter raises some of the interlinked matters that have been very much at issue in press, television, and the world wide web since September 11. First is the role of the imagination itself, and ...
More
This chapter raises some of the interlinked matters that have been very much at issue in press, television, and the world wide web since September 11. First is the role of the imagination itself, and of the unimaginable, in experiencing and categorising what we have difficulty understanding, and its role in our coming to terms with and coping with difficult matters of any kind. Second are the social interaction processes of categorisation and re-categorisation. Third is the contribution to our understanding provided by attention to the play of tropes in social life, and to the importance of tropology to our anthropology. Fourth are the multitude of moral issues and their claim upon our actions and reactions: the morality present in religious fundamentalism, for example. But also now under intense and renewed debate is the morality of political assassination, of racial profiling, of the employ of weapons of mass destruction. And fifth, in all of this and everywhere we find the disease of reification/entification of our newly realised world historical problem, the increasing disparity of well being. These are the diseases of language investigated here.Less
This chapter raises some of the interlinked matters that have been very much at issue in press, television, and the world wide web since September 11. First is the role of the imagination itself, and of the unimaginable, in experiencing and categorising what we have difficulty understanding, and its role in our coming to terms with and coping with difficult matters of any kind. Second are the social interaction processes of categorisation and re-categorisation. Third is the contribution to our understanding provided by attention to the play of tropes in social life, and to the importance of tropology to our anthropology. Fourth are the multitude of moral issues and their claim upon our actions and reactions: the morality present in religious fundamentalism, for example. But also now under intense and renewed debate is the morality of political assassination, of racial profiling, of the employ of weapons of mass destruction. And fifth, in all of this and everywhere we find the disease of reification/entification of our newly realised world historical problem, the increasing disparity of well being. These are the diseases of language investigated here.
James Close, Ulrike Hahn, and Carl J Hodgetts
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199549221
- eISBN:
- 9780191724152
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199549221.003.03
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Developmental Psychology
This chapter reviews studies of rule-based category learning within the human adult literature, and contrasts these results with evidence for similarity-based accounts of category learning (e.g. ...
More
This chapter reviews studies of rule-based category learning within the human adult literature, and contrasts these results with evidence for similarity-based accounts of category learning (e.g. exemplar and prototype models). Specifically, the chapter considers the contrast between rule-based versus similarity-based learning within research on unsupervised (spontaneous) categorization and supervised categorization. In the closing sections, it also presents and critically evaluates hybrid models of human adult categorization that are composed of both a rule and a similarity component.Less
This chapter reviews studies of rule-based category learning within the human adult literature, and contrasts these results with evidence for similarity-based accounts of category learning (e.g. exemplar and prototype models). Specifically, the chapter considers the contrast between rule-based versus similarity-based learning within research on unsupervised (spontaneous) categorization and supervised categorization. In the closing sections, it also presents and critically evaluates hybrid models of human adult categorization that are composed of both a rule and a similarity component.
Lawrence M. Zbikowski
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195140231
- eISBN:
- 9780199871278
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195140231.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Theory, Analysis, Composition
This book shows how recent work in cognitive science, especially that developed by cognitive linguists and cognitive psychologists, can be used to explain how we understand music. The book focuses on ...
More
This book shows how recent work in cognitive science, especially that developed by cognitive linguists and cognitive psychologists, can be used to explain how we understand music. The book focuses on three cognitive processes: categorization, cross-domain mapping, and the use of conceptual models, and explores the part these play in theories of musical organization. The first part of the book provides a detailed overview of the relevant work in cognitive science, framed around specific musical examples. The second part brings this perspective to bear on a number of issues with which music scholarship has often been occupied, including the emergence of musical syntax and its relationship to musical semiosis, the problem of musical ontology, the relationship between words and music in songs, and conceptions of musical form and musical hierarchy.Less
This book shows how recent work in cognitive science, especially that developed by cognitive linguists and cognitive psychologists, can be used to explain how we understand music. The book focuses on three cognitive processes: categorization, cross-domain mapping, and the use of conceptual models, and explores the part these play in theories of musical organization. The first part of the book provides a detailed overview of the relevant work in cognitive science, framed around specific musical examples. The second part brings this perspective to bear on a number of issues with which music scholarship has often been occupied, including the emergence of musical syntax and its relationship to musical semiosis, the problem of musical ontology, the relationship between words and music in songs, and conceptions of musical form and musical hierarchy.
Lisa M. Oakes, Jessica S. Horst, Kristine A. Kovack-Lesh, and Sammy Perone
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195301151
- eISBN:
- 9780199894246
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195301151.003.0006
- Subject:
- Psychology, Developmental Psychology
This chapter focuses on how infants learn categories in familiarization and habituation tasks — a context that provides both deep understanding into the processes of categorization and mimics many of ...
More
This chapter focuses on how infants learn categories in familiarization and habituation tasks — a context that provides both deep understanding into the processes of categorization and mimics many of infants' real-life encounters with objects in important ways. Five specific questions about how infants learn categories are addressed: (1) Is innate/previously acquired structure required to explain learning? (2) Which aspects of the environment support learning? (3) What kinds of learning processes are evident? Are these specific to a domain, or more general? Do they change with development? (4) What is the nature of the representations derived from learning? (5) How does previous learning generalize to new instances? It is argued that infants' performance in familiarization tasks should be seen not as a means of simply tapping the knowledge infants have acquired outside the laboratory, but also as a means of tapping how infants learn information given that existing knowledge.Less
This chapter focuses on how infants learn categories in familiarization and habituation tasks — a context that provides both deep understanding into the processes of categorization and mimics many of infants' real-life encounters with objects in important ways. Five specific questions about how infants learn categories are addressed: (1) Is innate/previously acquired structure required to explain learning? (2) Which aspects of the environment support learning? (3) What kinds of learning processes are evident? Are these specific to a domain, or more general? Do they change with development? (4) What is the nature of the representations derived from learning? (5) How does previous learning generalize to new instances? It is argued that infants' performance in familiarization tasks should be seen not as a means of simply tapping the knowledge infants have acquired outside the laboratory, but also as a means of tapping how infants learn information given that existing knowledge.
Barbara A. Younger and Kathy E. Johnson
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195366709
- eISBN:
- 9780199863969
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195366709.003.0012
- Subject:
- Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Vision
Humans are sophisticated information-processors, and categorization reduces the complex array of information in the world to manageable units that can be readily processed. Categorization is ...
More
Humans are sophisticated information-processors, and categorization reduces the complex array of information in the world to manageable units that can be readily processed. Categorization is ubiquitous to intellectual and social life, and the contributors to this volume are among those who have helped to delineate how the mechanisms that support categorization develop, particularly very early in childhood. Examining the origins of categorization in human infants requires clever methodologies, but not simply because infants have negligible labeling abilities and poor motor control. It is challenging to investigate infants' categorization of real-world objects for the very practical problem that actual instances of vehicles, furniture, animals, or tools may simply be too large, dangerous, unpredictable, or unwieldy ever to be used in infancy laboratories. Thus, researchers have devised clever techniques of assessing preverbal concepts with tasks that involve pictures or models representing real-world referents. This chapter reviews evidence in support of the thesis that some of these very techniques have contributed to conflicting patterns of results that have fueled debate over single- versus dual-process accounts of early categorization and, more generally, the need to distinguish perceptual and conceptual categorization processes. In particular, it is argued that infants' performance on categorization tasks may be distorted by their fragile understanding of the symbolic media used to represent real-world categories in the context of such tasks.Less
Humans are sophisticated information-processors, and categorization reduces the complex array of information in the world to manageable units that can be readily processed. Categorization is ubiquitous to intellectual and social life, and the contributors to this volume are among those who have helped to delineate how the mechanisms that support categorization develop, particularly very early in childhood. Examining the origins of categorization in human infants requires clever methodologies, but not simply because infants have negligible labeling abilities and poor motor control. It is challenging to investigate infants' categorization of real-world objects for the very practical problem that actual instances of vehicles, furniture, animals, or tools may simply be too large, dangerous, unpredictable, or unwieldy ever to be used in infancy laboratories. Thus, researchers have devised clever techniques of assessing preverbal concepts with tasks that involve pictures or models representing real-world referents. This chapter reviews evidence in support of the thesis that some of these very techniques have contributed to conflicting patterns of results that have fueled debate over single- versus dual-process accounts of early categorization and, more generally, the need to distinguish perceptual and conceptual categorization processes. In particular, it is argued that infants' performance on categorization tasks may be distorted by their fragile understanding of the symbolic media used to represent real-world categories in the context of such tasks.
B. S. Rosner and J. B. Pickering
- Published in print:
- 1994
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780198521389
- eISBN:
- 9780191706622
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198521389.001.0001
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience
Vowels are an important feature of the world's languages. Languages, however, differ in the number and the acoustic properties of their vowels. The two main problems of vowel perception needing ...
More
Vowels are an important feature of the world's languages. Languages, however, differ in the number and the acoustic properties of their vowels. The two main problems of vowel perception needing explanation are vowel categorization (identification) and vowel constancy. Categorization concerns how listeners know which of the different vowels of their language has been spoken. Constancy concerns how listeners do this despite wide variations in the realization of any particular vowel. This book opens with a brief consideration of the articulation and acoustics of vowels. It shows how differences in vowels arise across languages. Succeeding chapters cover auditory processing of vowels, concentrating on perceptual determination of formant peaks. Auditory processing includes identification and discrimination, normalization across speakers, and compensating perceptually for coarticulation and effects of rate and stress. The extensive literature on these topics is reviewed and integrated. A theory of vowel perception is proposed, based on fundamental psychoacoustic results and covering a wide variety of experimental findings on vowel identification and discrimination. The theory includes a pitch transform, spectral integration and suppression effects, specification of peaks in a phonetic loudness density function, and a nearest neighbour decision procedure. The theory tries to explain both vowel categorization and vowel constancy. The book ends with a general consideration of modern theories of vowel perception.Less
Vowels are an important feature of the world's languages. Languages, however, differ in the number and the acoustic properties of their vowels. The two main problems of vowel perception needing explanation are vowel categorization (identification) and vowel constancy. Categorization concerns how listeners know which of the different vowels of their language has been spoken. Constancy concerns how listeners do this despite wide variations in the realization of any particular vowel. This book opens with a brief consideration of the articulation and acoustics of vowels. It shows how differences in vowels arise across languages. Succeeding chapters cover auditory processing of vowels, concentrating on perceptual determination of formant peaks. Auditory processing includes identification and discrimination, normalization across speakers, and compensating perceptually for coarticulation and effects of rate and stress. The extensive literature on these topics is reviewed and integrated. A theory of vowel perception is proposed, based on fundamental psychoacoustic results and covering a wide variety of experimental findings on vowel identification and discrimination. The theory includes a pitch transform, spectral integration and suppression effects, specification of peaks in a phonetic loudness density function, and a nearest neighbour decision procedure. The theory tries to explain both vowel categorization and vowel constancy. The book ends with a general consideration of modern theories of vowel perception.
Adele Goldberg
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199268511
- eISBN:
- 9780191708428
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199268511.003.0003
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Theoretical Linguistics
Language contains both large generalizations and idiosyncratic facts, and therefore we unavoidably find those who favour lumping and those who favour splitting. The constructionist approach to ...
More
Language contains both large generalizations and idiosyncratic facts, and therefore we unavoidably find those who favour lumping and those who favour splitting. The constructionist approach to grammar offers a way out of the lumper/splitter dilemma: the approach allows both broad generalizations and more limited patterns to be analysed and accounted for fully. In particular, constructionist approaches are generally usage based: facts about the actual use of linguistic expressions, such as frequencies and individual patterns that are fully compositional are recorded alongside more traditional linguistic generalizations. This chapter consolidates evidence that such a usage based model is required to account for the synchronic state of grammar. Relevant findings in the non-linguistic category literature are also reviewed.Less
Language contains both large generalizations and idiosyncratic facts, and therefore we unavoidably find those who favour lumping and those who favour splitting. The constructionist approach to grammar offers a way out of the lumper/splitter dilemma: the approach allows both broad generalizations and more limited patterns to be analysed and accounted for fully. In particular, constructionist approaches are generally usage based: facts about the actual use of linguistic expressions, such as frequencies and individual patterns that are fully compositional are recorded alongside more traditional linguistic generalizations. This chapter consolidates evidence that such a usage based model is required to account for the synchronic state of grammar. Relevant findings in the non-linguistic category literature are also reviewed.
Adele Goldberg
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199268511
- eISBN:
- 9780191708428
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199268511.003.0004
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Theoretical Linguistics
Advances to our understanding of statistical learning mechanisms were not envisioned in the 1960s when the notion that critical aspects of grammar were unlearnable became dogma in the field of ...
More
Advances to our understanding of statistical learning mechanisms were not envisioned in the 1960s when the notion that critical aspects of grammar were unlearnable became dogma in the field of linguistics. This chapter joins the growing body of literature that detracts from the poverty of the stimulus argument by presenting evidence that the language input children receive provides more than adequate means by which learners can induce the association of meaning with certain argument structure patterns. Well-established categorization principles apply straightforwardly to this domain. This chapter outlines the first experimental studies to investigate novel construction learning. Results demonstrate that skewed input such that a single verb in a novel construction accounts for the preponderance of tokens, facilitates learners getting a ‘fix’ on the construction's meaning. One verb accounts for the lion's share of tokens of each argument frame considered in an extensive corpus study. In this way, grammatical constructions may arise developmentally as generalizations over lexical items in particular patterns.Less
Advances to our understanding of statistical learning mechanisms were not envisioned in the 1960s when the notion that critical aspects of grammar were unlearnable became dogma in the field of linguistics. This chapter joins the growing body of literature that detracts from the poverty of the stimulus argument by presenting evidence that the language input children receive provides more than adequate means by which learners can induce the association of meaning with certain argument structure patterns. Well-established categorization principles apply straightforwardly to this domain. This chapter outlines the first experimental studies to investigate novel construction learning. Results demonstrate that skewed input such that a single verb in a novel construction accounts for the preponderance of tokens, facilitates learners getting a ‘fix’ on the construction's meaning. One verb accounts for the lion's share of tokens of each argument frame considered in an extensive corpus study. In this way, grammatical constructions may arise developmentally as generalizations over lexical items in particular patterns.
Theo Van Leeuwen
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195323306
- eISBN:
- 9780199869251
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195323306.003.0002
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics
This chapter presents a framework for analyzing how the participants of social practices can be, and are, represented in English discourse. It outlines and exemplifies the social and critical import ...
More
This chapter presents a framework for analyzing how the participants of social practices can be, and are, represented in English discourse. It outlines and exemplifies the social and critical import of the categories of this framework and details the realization of each category. After discussing the discursive exclusion of social actors and the role social actors can play in discourse, the representation of social actors as groups (assimilation) and as individuals (individualization), the ways in which actors can be categorized (e.g. functionalization, categorization, relational identity) and the metonyms and abstractions that can conceal human agency behind institutions (institutionalization) or behind the means of action (instrumentalization) is addressed. A newspaper article about immigration is analyzed to bring out the potential of the methodology for critical discourse analysis.Less
This chapter presents a framework for analyzing how the participants of social practices can be, and are, represented in English discourse. It outlines and exemplifies the social and critical import of the categories of this framework and details the realization of each category. After discussing the discursive exclusion of social actors and the role social actors can play in discourse, the representation of social actors as groups (assimilation) and as individuals (individualization), the ways in which actors can be categorized (e.g. functionalization, categorization, relational identity) and the metonyms and abstractions that can conceal human agency behind institutions (institutionalization) or behind the means of action (instrumentalization) is addressed. A newspaper article about immigration is analyzed to bring out the potential of the methodology for critical discourse analysis.
Jan Westerhoff
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- May 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199285044
- eISBN:
- 9780191713699
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199285044.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
This introductory chapter begins with a discussion of the aim of this book, which is to investigate the notion of an ontological category. It argues that it is possible to give a coherent account of ...
More
This introductory chapter begins with a discussion of the aim of this book, which is to investigate the notion of an ontological category. It argues that it is possible to give a coherent account of ontological categories, which incorporates many of the features philosophers have traditionally ascribed to them: that they are the most general kinds of things, that they are organized in a non-overlapping hierarchy, and that certain categories are too special to be ontological categories. However, the conception of ontological category emerging from this specification cannot justify the fundamental status it is usually assumed to have. An overview of the chapters included in this volume is presented.Less
This introductory chapter begins with a discussion of the aim of this book, which is to investigate the notion of an ontological category. It argues that it is possible to give a coherent account of ontological categories, which incorporates many of the features philosophers have traditionally ascribed to them: that they are the most general kinds of things, that they are organized in a non-overlapping hierarchy, and that certain categories are too special to be ontological categories. However, the conception of ontological category emerging from this specification cannot justify the fundamental status it is usually assumed to have. An overview of the chapters included in this volume is presented.
M. Agnes Kang
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195327359
- eISBN:
- 9780199870639
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195327359.003.0008
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics
This chapter demonstrates how Korean American camp counselors locally construct ethnic identity through the practice of self‐categorization in discourse. Self‐categorization, or the identification of ...
More
This chapter demonstrates how Korean American camp counselors locally construct ethnic identity through the practice of self‐categorization in discourse. Self‐categorization, or the identification of oneself in terms of ethnic identity, serves to position counselors in terms of Korean ethnicity and to associate that identity with one's personal goals in participating in the Korean camp. Counselors discuss and debate whether the teaching of Korean heritage or the mentorship of the campers should be the primary objective of the camp. This opposition between ‘heritage’ and ‘mentorship’ is cast as a source of tensions that map onto ideologies of identity, whereby ‘Korean American’ identity acquires the local meaning of being linked to the importance of mentorship over Korean heritage.Less
This chapter demonstrates how Korean American camp counselors locally construct ethnic identity through the practice of self‐categorization in discourse. Self‐categorization, or the identification of oneself in terms of ethnic identity, serves to position counselors in terms of Korean ethnicity and to associate that identity with one's personal goals in participating in the Korean camp. Counselors discuss and debate whether the teaching of Korean heritage or the mentorship of the campers should be the primary objective of the camp. This opposition between ‘heritage’ and ‘mentorship’ is cast as a source of tensions that map onto ideologies of identity, whereby ‘Korean American’ identity acquires the local meaning of being linked to the importance of mentorship over Korean heritage.
W. K. Estes
- Published in print:
- 1994
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195073355
- eISBN:
- 9780199867899
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195073355.001.0001
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Psychology
Based on the author's important Fitts Lectures, this book details a set of psychological concepts and principles that offers a unified interpretation of a wide variety of memory, categorization, and ...
More
Based on the author's important Fitts Lectures, this book details a set of psychological concepts and principles that offers a unified interpretation of a wide variety of memory, categorization, and decision-making phenomena. These phenomena are explained via two families of models established by the book: a storage-retrieval model and an adaptive network model. The book considers whether the models are competing or complementary, offering cogent and instructive arguments for both perspectives. The book's theory is then applied to two large-scale series of studies on category learning and recognition, providing an integrated understanding of seemingly disparate phenomena. This book is the culmination of more than ten years research in the field.Less
Based on the author's important Fitts Lectures, this book details a set of psychological concepts and principles that offers a unified interpretation of a wide variety of memory, categorization, and decision-making phenomena. These phenomena are explained via two families of models established by the book: a storage-retrieval model and an adaptive network model. The book considers whether the models are competing or complementary, offering cogent and instructive arguments for both perspectives. The book's theory is then applied to two large-scale series of studies on category learning and recognition, providing an integrated understanding of seemingly disparate phenomena. This book is the culmination of more than ten years research in the field.
Isabel Gauthier, Michael Tarr, and Daniel Bub (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195309607
- eISBN:
- 9780199865291
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195309607.001.0001
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Vision
This book surveys the study of perceptual expertise in visual object recognition, introducing a variety of questions, research findings, and extant issues that have emerged from recent studies of ...
More
This book surveys the study of perceptual expertise in visual object recognition, introducing a variety of questions, research findings, and extant issues that have emerged from recent studies of face, object, and letter recognition. The book also discusses a novel collaborative model, codified as the “Perceptual Expertise Network.” The central idea of this group effort is an emphasis on domain-general principles of high-level visual learning that can account for how different object categories are processed and come to be associated with spatially localized activity in the primate brain. The approach brings together different traditions and techniques critical to cognitive neuroscience, such as psychophysics, human brain imaging, monkey physiology, developmental work, neuropsychological studies, and computational modeling. In 12 chapters, members of the Perceptual Expertise Network and their collaborators review how face perception motivated the study of perceptual expertise with objects, how face expertise develops in children, how different kinds of experience result in different degrees of expertise, and how perceptual expertise can break down in individuals with autism or different forms of deficits in perception. They describe advances and challenges in developing models to account for expertise, including the need to account for competition between different domains of expertise and to specify the functional locus of effects of expertise. They introduce more recent directions in the study of expertise, including research on expertise with letters and research investigating the interactions between perception and conception. Finally, they discuss the difficulties in relating high-level perceptual impairments and brain-based evidence to normal performance.Less
This book surveys the study of perceptual expertise in visual object recognition, introducing a variety of questions, research findings, and extant issues that have emerged from recent studies of face, object, and letter recognition. The book also discusses a novel collaborative model, codified as the “Perceptual Expertise Network.” The central idea of this group effort is an emphasis on domain-general principles of high-level visual learning that can account for how different object categories are processed and come to be associated with spatially localized activity in the primate brain. The approach brings together different traditions and techniques critical to cognitive neuroscience, such as psychophysics, human brain imaging, monkey physiology, developmental work, neuropsychological studies, and computational modeling. In 12 chapters, members of the Perceptual Expertise Network and their collaborators review how face perception motivated the study of perceptual expertise with objects, how face expertise develops in children, how different kinds of experience result in different degrees of expertise, and how perceptual expertise can break down in individuals with autism or different forms of deficits in perception. They describe advances and challenges in developing models to account for expertise, including the need to account for competition between different domains of expertise and to specify the functional locus of effects of expertise. They introduce more recent directions in the study of expertise, including research on expertise with letters and research investigating the interactions between perception and conception. Finally, they discuss the difficulties in relating high-level perceptual impairments and brain-based evidence to normal performance.
