Self-directedness, integration and higher cognition

In this paper I discuss connections between self-directedness, integration and higher cognition. I present a model of self-directedness as a basis for approaching higher cognition from a situated cognition perspective. According to this model increases in sensorimotor complexity create pressure for integrative higher order control and learning processes for acquiring information about the context in which action occurs. This generates complex articulated abstractive information processing, which forms the major basis for higher cognition. I present evidence that indicates that the same integrative characteristics found in lower cognitive process such as motor adaptation are present in a range of higher cognitive process, including conceptual learning. This account helps explain situated cognition phenomena in humans because the integrative processes by which the brain adapts to control interaction are relatively agnostic concerning the source of the structure participating in the process. Thus, from the perspective of the motor control system using a tool is not fundamentally different to simply controlling an arm

Understanding across the senses: cross-modal studies of cognition in cetaceans

Cross-modal approaches to the study of sensory perception, social recognition, cognition, and mental representation have proved fruitful in humans as well as in a variety of other species including toothed whales in revealing equivalencies that suggest that different sensory stimuli associated with objects or individuals may effectively evoke mental representations that are, respectively, object based or individual based. Building on established findings of structural equivalence in the form of spontaneous recognition of complex shapes across the modalities of echolocation and vision and behavior favoring identity echoic–visual cross-modal relationships over associative echoic–visual cross-modal relationships, examinations of transitive inference equivalencies from initially learned associations of visual and acoustic stimuli, and recent work exam- ining spontaneous cross-modal social recognition of individual identity across acoustic and gustatory chemical modalities (i.e., the equivalence relationships among an individual’s characteristics), we examine the history, utility and implications for cross-modal research in cetacean cognition. Drawing from research findings on bottlenose dolphins and beluga whales as well as other species we suggest future directions for cetacean cross-modal research to further illuminate understanding how structural and individual sensory equivalencies lead to object-centered and individual-centered mental representations, as well as to explore the potential for practical applications related to cetacean conservation

Consciousness CLEARS the Mind

A full understanding of consciouness requires that we identify the brain processes from which conscious experiences emerge. What are these processes, and what is their utility in supporting successful adaptive behaviors? Adaptive Resonance Theory (ART) predicted a functional link between processes of Consciousness, Learning, Expectation, Attention, Resonance, and Synchrony (CLEARS), includes the prediction that "all conscious states are resonant states." This connection clarifies how brain dynamics enable a behaving individual to autonomously adapt in real time to a rapidly changing world. The present article reviews theoretical considerations that predicted these functional links, how they work, and some of the rapidly growing body of behavioral and brain data that have provided support for these predictions. The article also summarizes ART models that predict functional roles for identified cells in laminar thalamocortical circuits, including the six layered neocortical circuits and their interactions with specific primary and higher-order specific thalamic nuclei and nonspecific nuclei. These prediction include explanations of how slow perceptual learning can occur more frequently in superficial cortical layers. ART traces these properties to the existence of intracortical feedback loops, and to reset mechanisms whereby thalamocortical mismatches use circuits such as the one from specific thalamic nuclei to nonspecific thalamic nuclei and then to layer 4 of neocortical areas via layers 1-to-5-to-6-to-4.National Science Foundation (SBE-0354378); Office of Naval Research (N00014-01-1-0624

Disappearance and Return: Psychoanalytic Perspectives on the Past

This is a theoretical dissertation about the psychology of returning to the past. The purpose of this work is to examine the growth potential of psychological returns and to clarify and contribute to psychoanalytic theory. Special attention is given to involuntary memories, or integrative returns, which are illustrated by four vignettes taken from a mixture of sources. These experiences provide a contrast to familiar pathological returns, such as the return of the repressed and the repetition compulsion. Accordingly, generative returns are differentiated from non-generative returns. With this distinction in mind, psychoanalytic theories are reappraised. A variety of psychoanalytic concepts and practices are reinterpreted as instances of generative returns, including (but not limited to) Freud’s early cathartic method, transference repetition, regression in the service of the ego, and regression to dependence. Other psychoanalytic concepts, particularly those stemming from the theories of Klein and Bion, are applied to the psychology of returning in general. The literature converges on some basic themes that cohere in each of the two classifications of returns, generative and non-generative. The following themes are prevalent in generative returns: expanded range of experience; rediscovery and resumed development; open interaction between different levels of organization; disorganization and reorganization; recognition; continuity; sense of individual truth; and reflective distance. By contrast, non-generative returns tend to eclipse meaning and have a non-elaborative character; these are experiences of discontinuity and fragmentation; they have a quality of “itness,” and occur outside the borders of self-feeling, or the “I.” Based on the complementary study of both experience and theory, it is possible to identify a typical sequence in generative returns. This sequence or progression constitutes a basic model of generative returns. Throughout this study, many generative returns follow a general progression from an initial phase of receptivity, to one of reimmersion and reexperiencing, to a concluding phase of self-reflection and reconfiguration. This mode of returning in the psychological sphere is representative of a basic principle of psychological growth. The electronic version of this dissertation is freely accessible through the OhioLINK ETD center (http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd/)

Word Learning in the Developing Brain : ERP Dynamics of Learning Word-Object Associations

This dissertation investigated electrophysiological measures of individual differences in toddlers’ ability to learn novel object labels and process familiar object words and their referents. The studies measured both visual and auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) in response to pictures of objects and words in a longitudinal sample of 20- to 24-month-olds, an age of dynamic vocabulary development. These ERP measures were related to the children’s productive vocabulary size as well as behavioral measures of word comprehension and object recognition.Study I aimed to test children’s ability to map familiar words to versions of their referents displaying reduced visual information (only overall shape or isolated parts), and whether this ability correlated with vocabulary size. Children with larger vocabularies showed a stronger N400 incongruity effect in response to words paired with correct vs. incorrect shape referents specifically, and the N400 effect in the shape condition also correlated with the children’s ability to overtly identify objects from their overall shape in a behavioral test. These results are discussed in relation to previous research demonstrating the emergence of a shape bias in children’s Word extension, as well as improvements in object shape recognition, during the second year of life.Study II investigated individual differences in novel word-object mapping andchanges with age in this ability. The overall sample showed ERP evidence of novel word learning (an N400 semantic incongruity effect) after five consistent word-object pairings at 24 months but not at 20 months. Children with large vocabularies demonstrated the same linear attenuation of N400 amplitude during novel word repetition as is commonly seen in adults, while children with smaller vocabularies did not show such attenuation until the end of the learning phase.Study III focused on the 20 month data set and explored how visual ERPs weremodulated as object-word pairs were presented repeatedly, and how these measures of visual object processing related to successful fast mapping of the novel words to the objects. A larger attenuation of the Nc component (associated with attention) predicted successful word learning, measured as a larger N400 incongruity effect to the novel words after training. Furthermore, better initial recognition of familiar objects correlated with a stronger N400 effect to the words for those objects. The results present novel evidence for a link between efficient visual processing of objects and word learning ability.Taken together, these findings demonstrate that the rapid vocabulary growth and striking individual differences in productive vocabulary development seen during children’s second year are linked to the dynamics of specific brain mechanisms involved in semantic processing of words and their referents

The Role of Neurosciences in Education... and Vice Versa

One of the key questions in education is how the learning process in the classroom takes place and how different environmental and individual circumstances (attention, motivation, nutrition, stimulus presentation, etc.) can enhance the child’s capabilities to learn and to remember. These and other cognitive skills are shaped as a consequence of the infant brain activity. Therefore, the provision of any information (included that obtained using animal models) relating to how the brain builds up learning and memory should be of high adaptive value. It is considered that an effort is needed to establish both a common language between education and neuroscience and a clear framework for exchanging questions and data

Learning the Meaning of the Vervet Alarm Calls using a Cognitive and Computational Model

This thesis explains how the infant vervet, Chlorocebus pygerthrus, learns the meaning of vervet alarm calls using the Learning Intelligent Distribution Agent\u27s (LIDA) perceptual learning mechanism. We consider an approch of multiple meanings which corresponds to a feeling-based meaning, an action-based meaning, and a referential meaning. The first part of simulations was performed to test the learning of the meaning of these alarm calls while the infant is attached physically to the mother. The second part of simulations was performed to study the infant\u27s understanding of these alarm calls while the infant is detached physically from the mother. The results show that a LIDA-based agent is capable to learn such multiple meanings. The agent learned in sequence the feeling-based meaning, the action-based meaning, and the referential meaning. The LIDA agent achieved a good performance of understanding. This was verified by checking the correct escape action after hearing a specific alarm call