Abstract
The actual approaches of Cognitive Science offer a partial explanation of cognition. In this paper, our main point is to catch some key elements from these approaches, that can be taken together in a future perspective for a better explanation of cognition. The key elements (levels of analysis, primitives, processes, structures, threshold,self-organisation, bidirectionality, emergency, habituation, tasks, theinteraction between levels and also the interactions between the elements of the cognitive system and the environment) help us to stress the need of the representations. Then, we arediscussing the following dichotomies: procedural-declarative,consciousness-unconsciousness, implicit-explicit. Finally, we will try to motivate the necessity of an abstract theory of representation in Cognitive Science.
``The sensitive things aren't, but the ideas are''.
Plato
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Anderson, P. W. and D. Stein: 1987, ‘Broken Symmetry, Emergent Properties, Dissipative Structures, Life’, in F. Eugene Yates (ed.), Self-Organizing System: The Emergence of Order, Plenum Press, New York.
Baars, J. B.: 1988, A Cognitive Theory of Consciousness, Oxford University Press, New York.
Bechtel, W.: 1998, ‘Representations and Cognitive Explanations: Assessing the Dynamicist's Challenge in Cognitive Science’, Cognitive Science 22(3), 295-318.
Beer, R.: 1995, ‘Computational and Dynamical Languages for Autonomous Agents’, in R. Port and T. van Gelder (eds), Mind as Motion: Explorations in the Dynamics of Cognition, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Black, I. B.: 1991, Information in the Brain: A Molecular Perspective, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Brooks, R.: 1991, ‘Intelligence without Representation’, Artificial Intelligence 47, 139-159.
Caianiello, E. R.: 1987, ‘A Thermodynamic Approach to Self-Organising Systems’, in F. Eugene Yates (ed.), Self-Organizing System: The Emergence of Order, Plenum Press, New York.
Clark, A.: 1997a, Being There: Putting Brain, Body and World Together Again, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Clark, A.: 1997b, ‘The Dynamical Challenge’, Cognitive Science 21(4), 461-481.
Elman, J. L., E. A. Bates, M. H. Johnson, A. Karmiloff-Smith, D. Parisi, and K. Plunkett: 1996, Rethinking Innateness. A Connectionist Perspective on Development, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Fisher, W. K. and R. T. Bidell: 1998, ‘Dynamic Development of Psychological Structures in Action and Thought’, in W. Damon (chief-ed.), Handbook of Child Psychology, Fifth edition, Vol. 1: Theoretical Models of Human Development, R.M. Lerner (vol. ed.), John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Fodor, J. A.: 1975, The Language of Thought, Harvard University Press.
Fodor, J. A. and Z. W. Pylyshyn: 1988, ‘Connectionism and Cognitive Architecture’, Cognition 28, 3-71
Globus G. G.: 1992, ‘A Noncomputational Theory’, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 4(4).
Globus, G. G.: 1995, The Postmodern Brain, John Benjamins.
Haken, H.: 2000, ‘From Visual Perception to Decision Making: A Synergetic Approach’, in A. Carsetti, (ed.), Functional Models of Cognition, Self-Organizing Dynamics and Semantic Structures in Cognitive Systems, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht.
Karmiloff-Smith, A.: 1994, ‘Precis of Beyond Modularity: A Developmental Perspective on Cognitive Science’, Brain and Brain Sciences 17, 639-745.
Kelso, J. A. S.: 1995, Dynamic Patterns, MIT Press/Bradford Books, Cambridge, MA and London, U.K.
Keijzer, F.: 1997, The Generation of Behaviour: On the Function of Representation in Organism-Environment-Dynamics, Ph.D. thesis, University of Leiden.
Kirsh, D.: 1991, ‘Today the Earwig, Tomorrow Man?’, Artificial Intelligence 47, 161-184.
Kossylyn, M. S.: 1997, ‘Mental Imagery’, in M. S. Gazzaniga (ed.), Conversation on Cognitive Science, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Ibarra, A. and Th. Mormann: 1997, ‘Representations of Scientific Rationality’, Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities 61, 59-87.
Mandler, J.: 1998, ‘Representation’, in W. Damon (chief-ed.), Handbook of Child Psychology, Fifth edition, in W. Damon (chief-ed.), Handbook of Child Psychology, Fifth edition, Vol. 2: Cognition, Perception, and Language, Deanna Kuhn and Robert S. Siegler (vol. eds), John Wiley, London.
McCauley, N. R.: 1998, ‘Levels of Explanation and Cognitive Architectures’, in W. Bechtel and G. Graham (eds), ACompanion to Cognitive Science, Blackwell, Oxford.
McClelland, J. L., D. E. Rumelhart, and the PDP Research Group: 1986, Parallel Distributed Processing: Explorations in the Microstructure of Cognition. Volume 2: Psychological and Biological Models, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Merzenich, M. M. and M. deCharms: 1996, ‘Neural Representations, Experience and Change’, in R. Llinas and P. S. Churchland (eds), The Mind-Brain Continuum: Sensory Processes, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Mundy, B.: 1986, ‘On the General Theory of Meaningful Representation’, Synthese 67, 391-437.
Port, R. and T. van Gelder: 1995, Mind as Motion: Explorations in the Dynamics of Cognition, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Prigojine, I.: 1992, De la Existenta la Devenire, Timp si complexitate in stiintele fizice, Editura Stiintifica, translation of FromBeing to Becoming, 1980, San Francisco.
Rumelhart, D. E., J. L. McClelland, and the PDP Research Group: 1986, Parallel Distributed Processing: Explorations in the Microstructure of Cognition. Volume 1: Foundations, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Skarda, A. C. and W. J. Freeman: 1987, ‘How the Brain Make Chaos in Order to Make Sense of the World’, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 10, 161-195.
Smolensky, P.: 1988, ‘On the Proper Treatment of Connectionism’, Brain and Behavioural Science 11, 1-74.
Suppes, P.: 1989, ‘Representation Theory and the Analyses of Structure’, Philosophia Naturalis 25, 254-268.
Swoyer, C.: 1991, ‘Structural Representations and Surrogative Reasoning’, Synthese 87, 449-508.
Thelen, E. and L. Smith: 1994, A Dynamic Systems Approach to the Development of Cognition and Action, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Thelen, E. and B. L. Smith: 1998, ‘Dynamic System Theories’, in W. Damon (chief-ed.), Handbook of Child Psychology, Fifth edition, Vol. 1: Theoretical Models of Human Development, Richard M. Lerner (vol. ed.), John Wiley, London.
van Geert, P.: 1991, ‘A Dynamic System Model Of Cognitive and Language Growth’, Psychological Review 98(1), 3-35.
van Geert, P.: 1994, Dynamic System of Development, Change between Complexity and Chaos, Harvester Wheatsheaf, New York and London.
van Gelder, T.: 1995, ‘What Might Cognition Be if Not Computation?’, Journal of Philosophy 92, 345-381.
van Gelder, T.: 1999, ‘Defending the Dynamical Hypothesis’, in W. Tschacher and J. P. Dauwalder (eds), Dynamics, Synergetics, Autonomous Agents: Nonlinear Systems Approaches to Cognitive Psychology and Cognitive Science, World Scientific, Singapore.
van Gelder, T. and R. Port: 1995, ‘It's about Time: A Perspective to Dynamical System Approach to Cognition’, in R. Port and T. van Gelder (eds), Mind as Motion: Explorations in the Dynamics of Cognition, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Wheeler, M. and A. Clark: 1999, ‘Genic Representation: Reconciling Content and Causal Complexity’, The British Journal for Philosophy of Science 50(1), 103-135.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Vacariu, G., Terhesiu, D. & Vacariu, M. Toward A Very Idea Of Representation. Synthese 129, 275–295 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1013019621505
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1013019621505