Understanding Representation in the Cognitive Sciences

1. Front Matter

   Pages 1-8

   PDF

2. Position Paper

   1. Does Representation Need Reality?

      • Markus F. Peschl, Alexander Riegler

      Pages 9-17

   2. Overview of Contributions

      Pages 19-22

3. Different Facets of Representation

   1. The Connectionist Route to Embodiment and Dynamicism

      • Georg Dorffner

      Pages 23-32

   2. The Ontological Status of Representations

      • Matthias Scheutz

      Pages 33-38

   3. Empirical and Metaphysical Anti-Representationalism

      • Anthony Chemero

      Pages 39-47

   4. Representation in Cognitive Neuroscience

      • Alfredo Pereira Jr.

      Pages 49-56

   5. Cognition without Representation?

      • Daniel D. Hutto

      Pages 57-74

4. Computational Approaches

   1. On Computing Systems and Their Environment

      • Georg Schwarz

      Pages 75-81

   2. Representation and Cognitive Explanation

      • William S. Robinson

      Pages 83-91

   3. When Coffee Cups Are Like Old Elephants, or Why Representation Modules Don’t Make Sense

      • Robert M. French

      Pages 93-100

   4. The Recommendation Architecture: Relating Cognition to Physiology

      • L. Andrew Coward

      Pages 101-113

5. Cognition as a Dynamical System

   1. Neurodynamics and the Revival of Associationism in Cognitive Science

      • Pim Haselager

      Pages 115-119

   2. The Dynamic Manifestation of Cognitive Structures in the Cerebral Cortex

      • Steven L. Bressler

      Pages 121-126

   3. Response Selectivity, Neuron Doctrine, and Mach’s Principle in Perception

      • Ken Mogi

      Pages 127-134

   4. Mental Representations: A Computational-Neuroscience Scheme

      • Marius Usher, Ernst Niebur

      Pages 135-142

6. Relevance of Action for Representation

   1. Sketchpads In and Beyond the Brain

      • Erich Harth

      Pages 143-146

   2. Inductive Learning with External Representations

      • Mark Wexler

      Pages 147-159

   3. Does the Brain Represent the World? Evidence Against the Mapping Assumption

      • Astrid von Stein

      Pages 161-167

   4. Perception Through Anticipation. A Behaviour-Based Approach to Visual Perception

      • Ralf Möller

      Pages 169-176

urrently a paradigm shift is occurring in for the conventional understanding of represen- which the traditional view of the brain as tions. The paper also summarizes the rationale for C representing the "things of the world" is the selection of contributions to this volume, which challenged in several respects. The present volume will roughly proceed from relatively "realist" c- is placed at the edge of this transition. Based on the ceptions of representation to more "constructivist" 1997 conference "New Trends in Cognitive Sci- interpretations. The final chapter of discussions, ence" in Vienna, Austria, it tries to collect and in- taped during and at the end of the conference, p- grate evidence from various disciplines such as p- vides the reader with the possibility to reflect upon losophy of science, neuroscience, computational the different approaches and thus contributes to b- approaches, psychology, semiotics, evolutionary ter and more integrative understanding of their biology, social psychology etc. , to foster a new thoughts and ideas. understanding of representation. The subjective experience of an outside world This book has a truly interdisciplinary character. It seems to suggest a mapping process where environ- is presented in a form that is readily accessible to mental entities are projected into our mind via some professionals and students alike across the cognitive kind of transmission. While a profound critique of sciences such as neuroscience, computer science, this idea is nearly as old as philosophy, it has gained philosophy, psychology, and sociology.

• Action
• Cognition
• Cognitive science
• Embodiment
• autonom
• communication
• evolution
• knowledge
• robot
• semantics

• Free University of Brussels, Brussels, Belgium

  Alexander Riegler

• University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

  Markus Peschl

• University/ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

  Astrid Stein

Policies and ethics