Representation in Dynamical Systems

The brain is often called a computer and likened to a Turing machine, in part because the mind can manipulate discrete symbols such as numbers. But the brain is a dynamical system, more like a Watt governor than a Turing machine. Can a dynamical system be said to operate using “representations”? This paper argues that it can, although not in the way a digital computer does. Instead, it uses phenomena best described using mathematic concepts such as chaotic attractors to stand in for aspects of the world.

[1]  J. Kelso,et al.  Evaluation of a dynamical model of speech perception. , 1994, Perception & psychophysics.

[2]  H. Hendriks-Jansen.  Catching Ourselves in the Act: Situated Activity, Interactive Emergence, Evolution, and Human Thought , 1996 .

[3]  B. Kendall.  Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos , 2001 .

[4]  Andy Clark,et al.  Doing without representing? , 1994, Synthese.

[5]  W. Freeman.  The physiology of perception. , 1991, Scientific American.

[6]  R. A. Brooks,et al.  Intelligence without Representation , 1991, Artif. Intell..

[7]  G. Hatfield.  Gibsonian representations and connectionist symbol processing: Prospects for unification , 1990 .

[8]  W. Sulis.  Naturally occurring computational systems , 1994 .

[9]  Patrick van der Smagt,et al.  Introduction to neural networks , 1995, The Lancet.

[10]  Jordan B. Pollack,et al.  Recursive Distributed Representations , 1990, Artif. Intell..

[11]  Jeffrey L. Elman,et al.  Language as a dynamical system , 1996 .

[12]  Michael A. Arbib,et al.  The handbook of brain theory and neural networks , 1995, A Bradford book.

[13]  T. Gelder,et al.  The dynamical hypothesis in cognitive science , 1998, Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

[14]  Thomas A. Klein,et al.  DYNAMICS IN ACTION: INTENTIONAL BEHAVIOR AS A COMPLEX SYSTEM , 2003 .

[15]  Wolff‐Michael Roth,et al.  Situated Cognition , 2021 .

[16]  James A. Anderson.  Associative networks , 1998 .

[17]  T. Gelder,et al.  What Might Cognition Be, If Not Computation? , 1995 .

[18]  Ryen W. White,et al.  Introduction , 2006, Commun. ACM.

[19]  P. Churchland.  A neurocomputational perspective , 1989 .

[20]  D. McDermott.  LANGUAGE OF THOUGHT , 2012 .

[21]  G. J. Dalenoort.  Towards a general theory of representation , 1990 .

[22]  Marco Giunti.  Dynamical models of cognition , 1996 .

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

[24]  A. Opstal.  Dynamic Patterns: The Self-Organization of Brain and Behavior , 1995 .

[25]  L. Barsalou,et al.  Steering a course for embodied representation , 2000 .

[26]  Maxim Stamenov,et al.  Fractals of Brain, Fractals of Mind: In Search of a Symmetry Bond , 1996 .

[27]  Stanley J. Rosenschein,et al.  A dynamical systems perspective on agent-environment interaction , 1996 .

[28]  T. Gelder,et al.  It's about time: an overview of the dynamical approach to cognition , 1996 .

[29]  Chris Eliasmith,et al.  Computation and Dynamical Models of Mind , 1997, Minds and Machines.

[30]  W. Freeman,et al.  How brains make chaos in order to make sense of the world , 1987, Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

[31]  William Bechtel,et al.  Representations and Cognitive Explanations: Assessing the Dynamicist's Challenge in Cognitive Science , 1998, Cogn. Sci..

[32]  J. Yorke,et al.  Chaos: An Introduction to Dynamical Systems , 1997 .

[33]  E. Thelen.  Time-scale dynamics and the development of an embodied cognition , 1996 .

[34]  Andy Clark,et al.  The Dynamical Challenge , 1997, Cogn. Sci..

[35]  Robert L. Goldstone,et al.  Reuniting perception and conception , 1998, Cognition.