Hearing meanings: the revenge of context

According to the perceptual view of language comprehension, listeners typically recover high-level linguistic properties such as utterance meaning without inferential work. The perceptual view is subject to the Objection from Context: since utterance meaning is massively context-sensitive, and context-sensitivity requires cognitive inference, the perceptual view is false. In recent work, Berit Brogaard provides a challenging reply to this objection. She argues that in language comprehension context-sensitivity is typically exercised not through inferences, but rather through top-down perceptual modulations or perceptual learning. This paper provides a complete formulation of the Objection from Context and evaluates Brogaards reply to it. Drawing on conceptual considerations and empirical examples, we argue that the exercise of context-sensitivity in language comprehension does, in fact, typically involve inference

In-Context Learning in Large Language Models Learns Label Relationships but Is Not Conventional Learning

The performance of Large Language Models (LLMs) on downstream tasks often improves significantly when including examples of the input-label relationship in the context. However, there is currently no consensus about how this in-context learning (ICL) ability of LLMs works: for example, while Xie et al. (2021) liken ICL to a general-purpose learning algorithm, Min et al. (2022b) argue ICL does not even learn label relationships from in-context examples. In this paper, we study (1) how labels of in-context examples affect predictions, (2) how label relationships learned during pre-training interact with input-label examples provided in-context, and (3) how ICL aggregates label information across in-context examples. Our findings suggests LLMs usually incorporate information from in-context labels, but that pre-training and in-context label relationships are treated differently, and that the model does not consider all in-context information equally. Our results give insights into understanding and aligning LLM behavior

Event Memory for Intelligent Agents

This dissertation presents a novel theory of event memory along with an associated computational model that embodies the claims of view which is integrated within a cognitive architecture. Event memory is a general-purpose storage for personal past experience. Literature on event memory reveals that people can remember events by both the successful retrieval of specific representations from memory and the reconstruction of events via schematic representations. Prominent philosophical theories of event memory, i.e., causal and simulationist theories, fail to capture both capabilities because of their reliance on a single representational format. Consequently, they also struggle with accounting for the full range of human event memory phenomena. In response, we propose a novel view that remedies these issues by unifying the representational commitments of the causal and simulation theories, thus making it a hybrid theory. We also describe an associated computational implementation of the proposed theory and conduct experiments showing the remembering capabilities of our system and its coverage of event memory phenomena. Lastly, we discuss our initial efforts to integrate our implemented event memory system into a cognitive architecture, and situate a tool-building agent with this extended architecture in the Minecraft domain in preparation for future event memory research

A cognitive model of fiction writing.

Models of the writing process are used to design software tools for writers who work with computers. This thesis is concerned with the construction of a model of fiction writing. The first stage in this construction is to review existing models of writing. Models of writing used in software design and writing research include behavioural, cognitive and linguistic varieties. The arguments of this thesis are, firstly, that current models do not provide an adequate basis for designing software tools for fiction writers. Secondly, research into writing is often based on questionable assumptions concerning language and linguistics, the interpretation of empirical research, and the development of cognitive models. It is argued that Saussure's linguistics provides an alternative basis for developing a model of fiction writing, and that Barthes' method of textual analysis provides insight into the ways in which readers and writers create meanings. The result of reviewing current models of writing is a basic model of writing, consisting of a cycle of three activities - thinking, writing, and reading. The next stage is to develop this basic model into a model of fiction writing by using narratology, textual analysis, and cognitive psychology to identify the kinds of thinking processes that create fictional texts. Remembering and imagining events and scenes are identified as basic processes in fiction writing; in cognitive terms, events are verbal representations, while scenes are visual representations. Syntax is identified as another distinct object of thought, to which the processes of remembering and imagining also apply. Genette's notion of focus in his analysis of text types is used to describe the role of characters in the writer's imagination: focusing the imagination is a process in which a writer imagines she is someone else, and it is shown how this process applies to events, scenes, and syntax. It is argued that a writer's story memory, influences his remembering and imagining; Todorov's work on symbolism is used to argue that interpretation plays the role in fiction writing of binding together these two processes. The role of naming in reading and its relation to problem solving is compared with its role in writing, and names or signifiers are added to the objects of thought in fiction writing. It is argued that problem solving in fiction writing is sometimes concerned with creating problems or mysteries for the reader, and it is shown how this process applies to events, scenes, signifiers and syntax. All these findings are presented in the form of a cognitive model of fiction writing. The question of testing is discussed, and the use of the model in designing software tools is illustrated by the description of a hypertextual aid for fiction writers

The Role Of Cognitive And Metacognitive Reading Comprehension Strategies In The Reading And Interpretation Of Mathematical Word Problem Texts Reading Clinicians\u27 Perceptions Of Domain Relevance And Elementary Students\u27 Cognitive Strategy Use

The intent of this concurrent mixed method study was to examine teacher perceptions and student applications of cognitive reading comprehension strategy use as applied to the reading and interpretation of a mathematics word problem. Teachers’ perceptions of the relevance and application of cognitive reading comprehension strategies to mathematics contexts were investigated through survey methods. Additionally, students’ cognitive strategy use was explored by eliciting verbalization of cognition using think aloud protocol and clinical interview probes with purposively selected first through sixth-grade students. An experimental component of this study involved the random assignment of teachers to a professional development book study focused on either a) instructional methods supportive of integrated cognitive strategy instruction in reading and mathematics (treatment group) or b) a review of cognitive strategy instruction in reading (control group). The results of this study indicate that the elementary student participants did not recognize the cognitive comprehension strategies that they were using during the initial reading of the mathematical text as relevant to mathematics based text, which is why initial patterns of strategy use were not sustained or renegotiated, but were instead replaced or extinguished without replacement upon identification of the text as mathematical. This may be due to a lack of: 1) domain-general instruction, 2) varied text examples in their schooling, and/or 3) conditional knowledge instruction for strategy use, effects that may be caused by the students’ teachers’ own domain-specific perceptions of cognitive strategy use at the elementary level. The teachers in the treatment group demonstrated greater awareness of the relevance of cognitive reading comprehension strategies for mathematics text than the control group; however, there was no evidence that this new awareness impacted their instruction in this study. Implications for iv professional development, integrated cognitive strategy instruction, and contributions to existing literature are discussed