A Multi-disciplinary Approach to the Investigation of Aspects of Serial Order in Cognition

Serial order processing or Sequence processing underlies many human activities such as speech, language, skill learning, planning, problem solving, etc. Investigating the\ud neural bases of sequence processing enables us to understand serial order in cognition and helps us building intelligent devices. In the current paper, various\ud cognitive issues related to sequence processing will be discussed with examples. Some of the issues are: distributed versus local representation, pre-wired versus\ud adaptive origins of representation, implicit versus explicit learning, fixed/flat versus hierarchical organization, timing aspects, order information embedded in sequences, primacy versus recency in list learning and aspects of sequence perception such as recognition, recall and generation. Experimental results that give evidence for the involvement of various brain areas will be described. Finally, theoretical frameworks based on Markov models and Reinforcement Learning paradigm will be presented. These theoretical ideas are useful for studying sequential phenomena in a principled way

The Microstructure of Experience

I argue that experiences can have microphenomenal structures, where the macrophenomenal properties we introspect are realized by non-introspectible microphenomenal properties. After explaining what it means to ascribe a microstructure to experience, I defend the thesis against its principal philosophical challenge, discuss how the thesis interacts with other philosophical issues about experience, and consider our prospects for investigating the microphenomenal realm

Spring School on Language, Music, and Cognition: Organizing Events in Time

The interdisciplinary spring school “Language, music, and cognition: Organizing events in time” was held from February 26 to March 2, 2018 at the Institute of Musicology of the University of Cologne. Language, speech, and music as events in time were explored from different perspectives including evolutionary biology, social cognition, developmental psychology, cognitive neuroscience of speech, language, and communication, as well as computational and biological approaches to language and music. There were 10 lectures, 4 workshops, and 1 student poster session. Overall, the spring school investigated language and music as neurocognitive systems and focused on a mechanistic approach exploring the neural substrates underlying musical, linguistic, social, and emotional processes and behaviors. In particular, researchers approached questions concerning cognitive processes, computational procedures, and neural mechanisms underlying the temporal organization of language and music, mainly from two perspectives: one was concerned with syntax or structural representations of language and music as neurocognitive systems (i.e., an intrapersonal perspective), while the other emphasized social interaction and emotions in their communicative function (i.e., an interpersonal perspective). The spring school not only acted as a platform for knowledge transfer and exchange but also generated a number of important research questions as challenges for future investigations

THE CHILD AND THE WORLD: How Children acquire Language

HOW CHILDREN ACQUIRE LANGUAGE Over the last few decades research into child language acquisition has been revolutionized by the use of ingenious new techniques which allow one to investigate what in fact infants (that is children not yet able to speak) can perceive when exposed to a stream of speech sound, the discriminations they can make between different speech sounds, differentspeech sound sequences and different words. However on the central features of the mystery, the extraordinarily rapid acquisition of lexicon and complex syntactic structures, little solid progress has been made. The questions being researched are how infants acquire and produce the speech sounds (phonemes) of the community language; how infants find words in the stream of speech; and how they link words to perceived objects or action, that is, discover meanings. In a recent general review in Nature of children's language acquisition, Patricia Kuhl also asked why we do not learn new languages as easily at 50 as at 5 and why computers have not cracked the human linguistic code. The motor theory of language function and origin makes possible a plausible account of child language acquisition generally from which answers can be derived also to these further questions. Why computers so far have been unable to 'crack' the language problem becomes apparent in the light of the motor theory account: computers can have no natural relation between words and their meanings; they have no conceptual store to which the network of words is linked nor do they have the innate aspects of language functioning - represented by function words; computers have no direct links between speech sounds and movement patterns and they do not have the instantly integrated neural patterning underlying thought - they necessarily operate serially and hierarchically. Adults find the acquisition of a new language much more difficult than children do because they are already neurally committed to the link between the words of their first language and the elements in their conceptual store. A second language being acquired by an adult is in direct competition for neural space with the network structures established for the first language

Metacognition and Reflection by Interdisciplinary Experts: Insights from Cognitive Science and Philosophy

Interdisciplinary understanding requires integration of insights from different perspectives, yet it appears questionable whether disciplinary experts are well prepared for this. Indeed, psychological and cognitive scientific studies suggest that expertise can be disadvantageous because experts are often more biased than non-experts, for example, or fixed on certain approaches, and less flexible in novel situations or situations outside their domain of expertise. An explanation is that experts’ conscious and unconscious cognition and behavior depend upon their learning and acquisition of a set of mental representations or knowledge structures. Compared to beginners in a field, experts have assembled a much larger set of representations that are also more complex, facilitating fast and adequate perception in responding to relevant situations. This article argues how metacognition should be employed in order to mitigate such disadvantages of expertise: By metacognitively monitoring and regulating their own cognitive processes and representations, experts can prepare themselves for interdisciplinary understanding. Interdisciplinary collaboration is further facilitated by team metacognition about the team, tasks, process, goals, and representations developed in the team. Drawing attention to the need for metacognition, the article explains how philosophical reflection on the assumptions involved in different disciplinary perspectives must also be considered in a process complementary to metacognition and not completely overlapping with it. (Disciplinary assumptions are here understood as determining and constraining how the complex mental representations of experts are chunked and structured.) The article concludes with a brief reflection on how the process of Reflective Equilibrium should be added to the processes of metacognition and philosophical reflection in order for experts involved in interdisciplinary collaboration to reach a justifiable and coherent form of interdisciplinary integration. An Appendix of “Prompts or Questions for Metacognition” that can elicit metacognitive knowledge, monitoring, or regulation in individuals or teams is included at the end of the article

A Review on the Cognitive Neuroscience of Autism

With increased recognition in the media, heightened prevalence, and advances in research technologies, investigation into the causes of autism has broadened in recent years. Studies at the molecular, structural, and behavioral levels have resulted in significant findings, linking autism to qualitative differences in neurological function and an alteration of early development. Familial aggregation of autism demonstrate a strong genetic factor, although genetics can not completely account for its pathogenesis. Studies show autism having one of the most complex pathologies among neurodevelopmental disorders. Future studies applying sophisticated methodologies in new areas may shed light on current mysteries surrounding the disorder

Acquisition of Autonomy in Biotechnology and Artificial Intelligence

This presentation discusses a notion encountered across disciplines, and in different facets of human activity: autonomous activity. We engage it in an interdisciplinary way. We start by considering the reactions and behaviors of biological entities to biotechnological intervention. An attempt is made to characterize the degree of freedom of embryos & clones, which show openness to different outcomes when the epigenetic developmental landscape is factored in. We then consider the claim made in programming and artificial intelligence that automata could show self-directed behavior as to the determination of their step-wise decisions on courses of action. This question remains largely open and calls for some important qualifications. We try to make sense of the presence of claims of freedom in agency, first in common sense, then by ascribing developmental plasticity in biology and biotechnology, and in the mapping of programmed systems in the presence of environmental cues and self-referenced circuits as well as environmental coupling. This is the occasion to recall attempts at working out a logical and methodological approach to the openness of concepts that are still to be found, and assess whether they can operate the structuring intelligibility of a yet undeveloped or underdeveloped field of study, where a “bisociation" and a unification of knowledge might be possible

Cultural universality versus particularity within e-CRM systems: a special case of information systems

Cultural factors are often identified as a crucial influence on the success or failure of Information Systems in general and Electronic Customer Relationship Management Systems (eCRM) in particular. Several researchers have suggested ways in which management can accommodate these factors or solve the problem they pose. This paper attempts to go one step beyond management measures and ask whether there is a theoretical foundation on which one can base the mutual influence of culture on eCRM. There is a lack of pervious literature on the impact of culture differences on eCRM systems. A normative literature review on the impact of culture on different types of Information Systems has been done to explore different cultural factors that might influence eCRM systems as an application of Information Systems. The authors highlight the cultures factors in macro and micro level that have been investigated in the literature of Information systems. At the macro level, it is necessary to consider the differences at a national level. The differentiating characteristics will include: organizational structures, function and process oriented views, supervisory control mechanisms etc. Micro level considerations will be at the individual level and will include human responses to organizational change, cultural acceptability of different organizational structures etc. The authors propose a framework of cultural concerns for management of eCRM systems within multinational environment organizations. This framework will be tested in future research and will be modified according to the results

Using fMRI in experimental philosophy: Exploring the prospects

This chapter analyses the prospects of using neuroimaging methods, in particular functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), for philosophical purposes. To do so, it will use two case studies from the field of emotion research: Greene et al. (2001) used fMRI to uncover the mental processes underlying moral intuitions, while Lindquist et al. (2012) used fMRI to inform the debate around the nature of a specific mental process, namely, emotion. These studies illustrate two main approaches in cognitive neuroscience: Reverse inference and ontology testing, respectively. With regards to Greene et al.’s study, the use of Neurosynth (Yarkoni 2011) will show that the available formulations of reverse inference, although viable a priori, seem to be of limited use in practice. On the other hand, the discussion of Lindquist et al.’s study will present the so far neglected potential of ontology-testing approaches to inform philosophical questions