The notion of dynamic unit: Conceptual developments in cognitive science

We suggest a common ground for alternative proposals in different domains of cognitive science which have previously seemed to have little in common. The underlying common theme is associated with a redefinition of the basic unit of analysis in each domain of thought. Our framework suggests a definition of unity which is based not on inherent properties of the elements constituting the unit, but rather on dynamic patterns of correlation across the elements. We introduce a set of features that characterize the new dynamic units, and distinguish them from traditional units of analysis. A conceptual connection is made with the identification of elementary units in modern physics theories, as well as with concepts and structures in the study of complex dynamical systems and connectionism. The paper analyses the evolution of the concept of unit in different domains of thought in cognitive science, and examines the proposed framework of “dynamic unity” with regard to various theoretical problems within each domain. The particular cognitive science issues discussed in the paper include: (1) the binding problem in the brain; (2) the mental unit of conceptual organization; (3) defining ‘wordhood’ in linguistics; and (4) identifying the unit of cognition in the natural environment.

[1]  Douglas Hofstadter,et al.  A Review of Mental Leaps: Analogy in Creative Thought , 1995, AI Mag..

[2]  Jiří Krámský,et al.  The word as a linguistic unit , 1969 .

[3]  H. S. Green,et al.  Extracellular fields within the cortex. , 1985, Journal of theoretical biology.

[4]  S. Zeki.  The representation of colours in the cerebral cortex , 1980, Nature.

[5]  W. Singer,et al.  Oscillatory responses in cat visual cortex exhibit inter-columnar synchronization which reflects global stimulus properties , 1989, Nature.

[6]  S. Zeki.  Colour coding in the cerebral cortex: The responses of wavelength-selective and colour-coded cells in monkey visual cortex to changes in wavelength composition , 1983, Neuroscience.

[7]  D. Hubel,et al.  Anatomy and physiology of a color system in the primate visual cortex , 1984, The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience.

[8]  D. Hubel,et al.  Segregation of form, color, movement, and depth: anatomy, physiology, and perception. , 1988, Science.

[9]  Donald A. Norman,et al.  Things That Make Us Smart: Defending Human Attributes In The Age Of The Machine , 1993 .

[10]  G. Lakoff,et al.  Metaphors We Live By , 1980 .

[11]  M. Baltin,et al.  The Mental representation of grammatical relations , 1985 .

[12]  P. Johnson-Laird.  Mental models , 1989 .

[13]  P. Anderson.  Basic Notions of Condensed Matter Physics , 1983 .

[14]  S. Kraemer.  Steps to an Ecology of Mind: Gregory Bateson , 1993, British Journal of Psychiatry.

[15]  E. Rosch.  Cognitive Representations of Semantic Categories. , 1975 .

[16]  Allen Newell,et al.  Human Problem Solving. , 1973 .

[17]  S Zeki,et al.  THE REPRESENTATION OF COLORS IN THE CEREBRAL-CORTEX , 1980 .

[18]  Leslie G. Ungerleider,et al.  Contour, color and shape analysis beyond the striate cortex , 1985, Vision Research.

[19]  P. Smolensky.  On the proper treatment of connectionism , 1988, Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

[20]  James P. Crutchfield,et al.  Dynamics, computation, and the “edge of chaos”: a re-examination , 1993, adap-org/9306003.

[21]  Richard J. Rogalski,et al.  A Re-Examination , 1978 .

[22]  J. Fodor,et al.  The structure of a semantic theory , 1963 .

[23]  L. Shastri,et al.  From simple associations to systematic reasoning: A connectionist representation of rules, variables and dynamic bindings using temporal synchrony , 1993, Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

[24]  Antonio R. Damasio,et al.  The Brain Binds Entities and Events by Multiregional Activation from Convergence Zones , 1989, Neural Computation.

[25]  Eleanor Rosch,et al.  Principles of Categorization , 1978 .

[26]  J J Hopfield,et al.  Neural networks and physical systems with emergent collective computational abilities. , 1982, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[27]  G. Frege.  On Sense and Reference , 1948 .

[28]  K. Holyoak,et al.  Mental Leaps: Analogy in Creative Thought , 1994 .

[29]  D. Pines,et al.  The theory of quantum liquids , 1968 .

[30]  Melanie Mitchell,et al.  Analogy-making as perception - a computer model , 1993, Neural network modeling and connectionism.

[31]  Lucy Suchman.  Plans and situated actions: the problem of human-machine communication , 1987 .

[32]  B. Indurkhya.  Metaphor and Cognition: An Interactionist Approach , 1992 .

[33]  William J. Clancey,et al.  Situated Action: A Neuropsychologiwl Interpretation Response to Vera and Simon , 2005 .

[34]  Albert Einstein,et al.  Can Quantum-Mechanical Description of Physical Reality Be Considered Complete? , 1935 .

[35]  G. Lakoff.  The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor , 1993 .

[36]  Edward E. Smith,et al.  Concepts and concept formation. , 1984, Annual review of psychology.

[37]  David Chapman,et al.  Pengi: An Implementation of a Theory of Activity , 1987, AAAI.

[38]  András Komlósy.  Complements and Adjuncts , 1994 .

[39]  Luc Steels,et al.  The artificial life route to artificial intelligence : building embodied , 1995 .

[40]  Herbert A. Simon,et al.  Situated Action: A Symbolic Interpretation , 1993, Cogn. Sci..

[41]  H. S. Green,et al.  Information transfer by electromagnetic waves in cortex layers. , 1988, Journal of theoretical biology.

[42]  E. Hutchins.  Cognition in the wild , 1995 .

[43]  D. Norman.  The psychology of everyday things , 1990 .

[44]  J. Fodor,et al.  Connectionism and cognitive architecture: A critical analysis , 1988, Cognition.

[45]  Katalin É. Kiss,et al.  The syntactic structure of Hungarian , 1992 .

[46]  J. Holland.  Echoing emergence: objectives, rough definitions, and speculations for ECHO-class models , 1999 .

[47]  M. Wallace,et al.  Converging influences from visual, auditory, and somatosensory cortices onto output neurons of the superior colliculus. , 1993, Journal of neurophysiology.

[48]  W. Freeman.  Second Commentary: On the proper treatment of connectionism by Paul Smolensky (1988) - Neuromachismo Rekindled , 1989 .

[49]  P. Johnson-Laird,et al.  Mental Models: Towards a Cognitive Science of Language, Inference, and Consciousness , 1985 .

[50]  G. Lakoff,et al.  Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal about the Mind , 1988 .

[51]  Tara Mohanan,et al.  Wordhood and lexicality: Noun incorporation in Hindi , 1995 .

[52]  Reinhard Eckhorn,et al.  Feature Linking via Synchronization among Distributed Assemblies: Simulations of Results from Cat Visual Cortex , 1990, Neural Computation.