Constraining Cognitive Theories

Constraining Cognitive Theories PDF Author: Zenon W. Pylyshyn
Publisher: Praeger
ISBN:
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
This book presents a collection of essays on foundational and methodological issues in cognitive science. Topics range from the philosophical problems surrounding intentionality and holism to specific scientific issues concerned with the architecture of systems for problem solving, planning, language processing, vision and visual-motor coordination. The larger theme is cognitive architecture and the twelve chapters show the generality of the problems associated with this theme as it impinges on almost every area of cognitive science and most methodological approaches adopted to date.

Constraining Cognitive Theories

Constraining Cognitive Theories PDF Author: Zenon W. Pylyshyn
Publisher: Praeger
ISBN:
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 322

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book presents a collection of essays on foundational and methodological issues in cognitive science. Topics range from the philosophical problems surrounding intentionality and holism to specific scientific issues concerned with the architecture of systems for problem solving, planning, language processing, vision and visual-motor coordination. The larger theme is cognitive architecture and the twelve chapters show the generality of the problems associated with this theme as it impinges on almost every area of cognitive science and most methodological approaches adopted to date.

The Epigenesis of Mind

The Epigenesis of Mind PDF Author: Susan Carey
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 1317784642
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 351

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Book Description
Reflecting the focus of a Jean Piaget Symposium entitled Biology and Knowledge: Structural Constraints on Development, this volume presents many of the emergent themes discussed. Among these themes are: Structural constraints on cognitive development and learning come in many shapes and forms and involve appeal to more than one level of analysis. To postulate innate knowledge is not to deny that humans can acquire new concepts. It is unlikely that there is only one learning mechanism, even if one prefers to work with general as opposed to domain-specific mechanisms. The problems of induction with respect to concept acquisition are even harder than originally thought.

Evolution Challenges

Evolution Challenges PDF Author: Karl S. Rosengren
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199909180
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 487

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Book Description
A recent poll revealed that one in four Americans believe in both creationism and evolution, while another 41% believe that creationism is true and evolution is false. A minority (only 13%) believe only in evolution. Given the widespread resistance to the idea that humans and other animals have evolved and given the attention to the ongoing debate of what should be taught in public schools, issues related to the teaching and learning of evolution are quite timely. Evolution Challenges: Integrating Research and Practice in Teaching and Learning about Evolution goes beyond the science versus religion dispute to ask why evolution is so often rejected as a legitimate scientific fact, focusing on a wide range of cognitive, socio-cultural, and motivational factors that make concepts such as evolution difficult to grasp. The volume brings together researchers with diverse backgrounds in cognitive development and education to examine children's and adults' thinking, learning, and motivation, and how aspects of representational and symbolic knowledge influence learning about evolution. The book is organized around three main challenges inherent in teaching and learning evolutionary concepts: folk theories and conceptual biases, motivational and epistemological biases, and educational aspects in both formal and informal settings. Commentaries across the three main themes tie the book together thematically, and contributors provide ideas for future research and methods for improving the manner in which evolutionary concepts are conveyed in the classroom and in informal learning experiences. Evolution Challenges is a unique text that extends far beyond the traditional evolution debate and is an invaluable resource to researchers in cognitive development, science education and the philosophy of science, science teachers, and exhibit and curriculum developers.

Time-constrained Memory

Time-constrained Memory PDF Author: Jean-Pierre Corriveau
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 1317780116
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 429

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Book Description
This book tries to answer the question posed by Minsky at the beginning of The Society of Mind: "to explain the mind, we have to show how minds are built from mindless stuff, from parts that are much smaller and simpler than anything we'd considered smart." The author believes that cognition should not be rooted in innate rules and primitives, but rather grounded in human memory. More specifically, he suggests viewing linguistic comprehension as a time-constrained process -- a race for building an interpretation in short term memory. After reviewing existing psychological and computational approaches to text understanding and concluding that they generally rely on self-validating primitives, the author abandons this objectivist and normative approach to meaning and develops a set of requirements for a grounded cognitive architecture. He then goes on to explain how this architecture must avoid all epistemological commitments, be tractable both with respect to space and time, and, most importantly, account for the diachronic and non-deterministic nature of comprehension. In other words, a text may or may not lead to an interpretation for a specific reader, and may be associated with several interpretations over time by one reader. Throughout the remainder of the book, the author demonstrates that rules for all major facets of comprehension -- syntax, reference resolution, quantification, lexical and structural disambiguation, inference and subject matter -- can be expressed in terms of the simple mechanistic computing elements of a massively parallel network modeling memory. These elements, called knowledge units, work in a limited amount of time and have the ability not only to recognize but also to build the structures that make up an interpretation. Designed as a main text for graduate courses, this volume is essential to the fields of cognitive science, artificial intelligence, memory modeling, text understanding, computational linguistics and natural language understanding. Other areas of application are schema-matching, hermeneutics, local connectionism, and text linguistics. With its extensive bibliography, the book is also valuable as supplemental reading for introductory undergraduate courses in cognitive science and computational linguistics.

Constraint-induced Movement Therapy

Constraint-induced Movement Therapy PDF Author: G. Uswatte
Publisher: Ios PressInc
ISBN: 9781586036591
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 74

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Book Description
Constraint-Induced Movement therapy (CI therapy) is a behavioral approach to neurorehabilitation based on a program of neuroscience experiments conducted with monkeys. Evidence has accumulated to support the efficacy of CI therapy for rehabilitating hemiparetic arm use in individuals with chronic stroke. This book addresses the related topics.

Theories of Mood and Cognition

Theories of Mood and Cognition PDF Author: Leonard L. Martin
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 1135682232
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
Approaching the topic from a social psychological viewpoint, this book provides a forum for some currently active theorists to provide concise descriptions of their models in a way that addresses four of the most central issues in the field: How does affect influence memory, judgment, information processing, and creativity? Each presentation includes a concise description of the theory's underlying assumptions, an application of these assumptions to the four central issues, and some answers to questions posed by the other theorists. Thus, in one volume, the reader is presented with a single authoritative source for current theories of affect and information processing and is given a chance to "listen in" on a conversation among the theorists in the form of questions and answers related to each theory. Students and researchers alike will benefit from the clarity and brevity of this volume.

Mathematical Difficulties

Mathematical Difficulties PDF Author:
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 0080559778
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
This book examines the mathematical difficulties in typical and atypical populations. It discusses the behavioural, educational and neuropsychological characteristics of people with mathematical difficulties, and educational interventions to prevent, diagnose, treat or ameliorate such difficulties. The book brings together studies from different disciplines, including developmental psychology, neuroscience and education, and includes perspectives from practicing teachers.The book is divided into three major sections. The first includes chapters about the nature and characteristics of mathematical difficulties in the population as a whole, in relation to both psychology and education. The second deals with mathematical difficulties in children with other problems such as specific language impairment and dyslexia. The third discusses methods of interventions aimed at preventing, treating or ameliorating mathematical difficulties, and will include discussions of assessment and diagnosis.

Meaning, Context and Methodology

Meaning, Context and Methodology PDF Author: Sarah-Jane Conrad
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 1501504231
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
What methodological impact does Contextualism have on the philosophy of language? This collection sets out to provide some answers. The authors in this volume question three ultimately connected assumptions of the philosophy of language. The first assumption relates to the predominant status of referential semantics and its power to explain truth-conditional meaning. This assumption has come under attack by the context thesis and a number of papers pursue the question of whether this is justified. The second assumption gives priority to assertive sentences when considering language use. The context thesis changes our understanding of language use altogether; possible implications from this methodological shift are addressed in this volume. According to the third assumption, philosophical analysis amounts to nothing more than conceptual analysis. The context thesis risks undermining this project. Whether conceptual analysis can still be defended as a methodological tool is discussed in this volume.

Communication Yearbook 5

Communication Yearbook 5 PDF Author: Michael Burgoon
Publisher: Transaction Publishers
ISBN: 9781412844864
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 922

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Book Description
Published under the auspices of the International Communication Association, this volume, the fifth in the Communication Yearbook series, provides an annual overview and synthesis of developments in the science of communication. Disciplinary reviews and commentaries on general topics in all subdivisions of communication accompany analyses of developments in communication theory and research in specialized areas within the communication sciences. Among the areas covered are information systems, interpersonal communication, political communication, instructional communication, health communication, mass communication, organizational communication, and intercul-tural communication. Reviews and commentaries are commissioned by the editor, and divisional overviews are prepared by scholars in each area of specialization. Articles presenting current research are selected through competitive judging processes within each interest area.

Constrained Elitism and Contemporary Democratic Theory

Constrained Elitism and Contemporary Democratic Theory PDF Author: Timothy Kersey
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317928288
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 136

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Book Description
Today, examples of the public’s engagement with political issues through commercial and communicative mechanisms have become increasingly common. In February 2012, the Susan G. Komen Foundation reversed a decision to cease funding of cancer screening programs through Planned Parenthood amidst massive public disapproval. The same year, restaurant chain Chic-fil-A became embroiled in a massive public debate over statements its President made regarding same-sex marriage. What exactly is going on in such public engagement, and how does this relate to existing ideas regarding the public sphere and political participation? Is the public becoming increasingly vocal in its complaints? Or are new relationships between the public and economic and political leaders emerging? Timothy Kersey’s book asserts that the widespread utilization of internet communications technologies, especially social media applications, has brought forth a variety of new communicative behaviors and relationships within liberal polities. Through quick and seemingly chaotic streams of networked communication, the actions of these elites are subject to increasingly intense scrutiny and short-term pressure to ameliorate or at least address the concerns of segments of the population. By examining these new patterns of behavior among both elites and the general public, Kersey unearths the implications of these patterns for contemporary democratic theory, and argues that contemporary conceptualizations of "the public’" need to be modified to more accurately reflect practices of online communication and participation. By engaging with this topical issue, Kersey is able to closely examine the self-organization of both elite and non-elite segments of the population within the realm of networked communication, and the relations and interactions between these segments. His book combines perspectives from political theory and communication studies and so will be widely relevant across both disciplines.