A semantic and language-based representation of an environmental scene

The modeling of a landscape environment is a cognitive activity that requires appropriate spatial representations. The research presented in this paper introduces a structural and semantic categorization of a landscape view based on panoramic photographs that act as a substitute of a given natural environment. Verbal descriptions of a landscape scene provide themodeling input of our approach. This structure-based model identifies the spatial, relational, and semantic constructs that emerge from these descriptions. Concepts in the environment are qualified according to a semantic classification, their proximity and direction to the observer, and the spatial relations that qualify them. The resulting model is represented in a way that constitutes a modeling support for the study of environmental scenes, and a contribution for further research oriented to the mapping of a verbal description onto a geographical information system-based representation

How human schematization and systematic errors take effect on sketch map formalizations

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Geospatial TechnologiesSketch map is an important way to represent spatial information used in many geospatial reasoning tasks (Forbus, K., Usher, J., & Chapman, V. 2004). Compared with verbal or textual language, sketch map is a more interactive mode that more directly supports human spatial thinking and thus is a more natural way to reflect how people perceive properties of spatial objects and their spatial relations. One challenging application of sketch maps is called Spatial-Query-by-Sketch proposed by Egenhofer. Being a design of query language for geographic information systems (GISs), it allows a user to formulate a spatial query by drawing the desired spatial configuration with a pen on a touch-sensitive computer screen and get it translated into a symbolic representation to be processed against a geographic database (Egenhofer, M. 1997). During the period of sketch map drawing, errors due to human spatial cognition in mind may occur. A ready example is as follows: distance judgments for route are judged longer when the route has many turns or landmarks or intersections (Tversky, B. 2002). Direction get straightened up in memory. When Parisians were asked to sketch maps of their city, the Seine was drawn as a curve, but straighter than it actually is (Milgram, S. and Jodelet, D. 1976). Similarly, buildings and streets with different shapes are often simply depicted as schematic figures like blobs and lines. These errors are neither random nor due solely to ignorance; rather they appear to be a consequence of ordinary perceptual and cognitive processes (Tversky, 2003). Therefore, when processing sketch map analysis and representing it in a formal way, like Egenhofer's analysis approach for Spatial-Query-by-Sketch, the resulting formalization must necessarily be wrong if it does not account for the fact that some spatial information is distorted or omitted by humans. Therefore, when sketch map analysis is processed and represented in a formal way same as Egenhofer’s analytical approach to Spatial-Query-by-Sketch, the resulting formalization is simply erroneous since it never takes into account the fact that some spatial information is distorted or neglected in human perceptions. Though Spatial-Query-by-Sketch overcomes the limitations of conventional spatial query language by taking into consideration those alternative interaction methods between users and data, it is still not always true that accuracy of its query results is reliable.(...

Towards an integrated theory of argumentation

Our objective is to show the possibility of integrating different developments in the field of argumentation. From informal logic, dialectical logic, natural logic, the study of fallacies, pragma-dialectics, semio-linguistics, and argumentation within language, among others, it is possible to build both descriptive and evaluative models of logic, dialectic, rhetoric, and the linguistic-semiotic dimensions of argumentation. We suggest the criteria for a typology of the main discursive-argumentative fu nctionings. This proposal thus intends to initiate a new organon, in which argumentative dimensions are analyzed from the semiotic processes which allow the establishment of analytical bridges between them

Would humans without language be apes?

The bedrock of comparative psychology of cognition, especially where nonhuman primates are concerned, rests on Darwin's famous account according to which continuity would be the main trait leading from the animal to the human mind. This idea was popularized through the statement in which Darwin postulated only quantitative differences between humans and the other species, namely "the difference in mind between man and the higher animals, great as it is, certainly is one of degree and not of kind" (Darwin, 1871, p. 128)..

Modelling the Developing Mind: From Structure to Change

This paper presents a theory of cognitive change. The theory assumes that the fundamental causes of cognitive change reside in the architecture of mind. Thus, the architecture of mind as specified by the theory is described first. It is assumed that the mind is a three-level universe involving (1) a processing system that constrains processing potentials, (2) a set of specialized capacity systems that guide understanding of different reality and knowledge domains, and (3) a hypecognitive system that monitors and controls the functioning of all other systems. The paper then specifies the types of change that may occur in cognitive development (changes within the levels of mind, changes in the relations between structures across levels, changes in the efficiency of a structure) and a series of general (e.g., metarepresentation) and more specific mechanisms (e.g., bridging, interweaving, and fusion) that bring the changes about. It is argued that different types of change require different mechanisms. Finally, a general model of the nature of cognitive development is offered. The relations between the theory proposed in the paper and other theories and research in cognitive development and cognitive neuroscience is discussed throughout the paper

Fritjof Capra’s holism and the structures of philosophical conceptualisation: The logosemantics of complexity

This article explores a field of study that I call logosemantics: the theory of conceptual structures that determine philosophical expressions of ultimate insight. The kind of structures that logosemantics postulates are described with reference to the holistic philosophy of Capra. In particular the conceptualisation of holistic complexity in relation to reductionistic simplicity is thematised. In the course of this analysis the logosemantic place of complexity in the conceptual structure of philosophically foundational expressions is identified, with reference not only to Capra, but also to various philosophical "languages" in the history of Western thought, from Greek metaphysics to systems philosophy and post-structuralism. Attention is also given to some Eastern philosophies. After a purely descriptive analysis of logosemantic form, the possibility of logosemantic criticism is considered. The relation of simplicity and complexity is reviewed again, and an alternative interpretation to the one seemingly favoured by Capra is suggested