49 research outputs found
Sign evolution on multiple time scales. Introductory comments
Th is thematic issue explores aspects of sign emergence, development and change. Rather than static entities, signs are approached as dynamic relations that grow, develop and change over time in response to various environmental, cognitive, social or biological factors
Joint perceptual decision-making: a case study in explanatory pluralism.
Traditionally different approaches to the study of cognition have been viewed as competing explanatory frameworks. An alternative view, explanatory pluralism, regards different approaches to the study of cognition as complementary ways of studying the same phenomenon, at specific temporal and spatial scales, using appropriate methodological tools. Explanatory pluralism has been often described abstractly, but has rarely been applied to concrete cases. We present a case study of explanatory pluralism. We discuss three separate ways of studying the same phenomenon: a perceptual decision-making task (Bahrami et al., 2010), where pairs of subjects share information to jointly individuate an oddball stimulus among a set of distractors. Each approach analyzed the same corpus but targeted different units of analysis at different levels of description: decision-making at the behavioral level, confidence sharing at the linguistic level, and acoustic energy at the physical level. We discuss the utility of explanatory pluralism for describing this complex, multiscale phenomenon, show ways in which this case study sheds new light on the concept of pluralism, and highlight good practices to critically assess and complement approaches
Language beyond the language system:Dorsal visuospatial pathways support processing of demonstratives and spatial language during naturalistic fast fMRI
Spatial demonstratives are powerful linguistic tools used to establish joint attention. Identifying the meaning of semantically underspecified expressions like âthis oneâ hinges on the integration of linguistic and visual cues, attentional orienting and pragmatic inference. This synergy between language and extralinguistic cognition is pivotal to language comprehension in general, but especially prominent in demonstratives. In this study, we aimed to elucidate which neural architectures enable this intertwining between language and extralinguistic cognition using a naturalistic fMRI paradigm. In our experiment, 28 participants listened to a specially crafted dialogical narrative with a controlled number of spatial demonstratives. A fast multiband-EPI acquisition sequence (TR = 388 m s) combined with finite impulse response (FIR) modelling of the hemodynamic response was used to capture signal changes at word-level resolution. We found that spatial demonstratives bilaterally engage a network of parietal areas, including the supramarginal gyrus, the angular gyrus, and precuneus, implicated in information integration and visuospatial processing. Moreover, demonstratives recruit frontal regions, including the right FEF, implicated in attentional orienting and reference frames shifts. Finally, using multivariate similarity analyses, we provide evidence for a general involvement of the dorsal (âwhereâ) stream in the processing of spatial expressions, as opposed to ventral pathways encoding object semantics. Overall, our results suggest that language processing relies on a distributed architecture, recruiting neural resources for perception, attention, and extra-linguistic aspects of cognition in a dynamic and context-dependent fashion
Crea.Blender: A Neural Network-Based Image Generation Game to Assess Creativity
We present a pilot study on crea.blender, a novel co-creative game designed
for large-scale, systematic assessment of distinct constructs of human
creativity. Co-creative systems are systems in which humans and computers
(often with Machine Learning) collaborate on a creative task. This
human-computer collaboration raises questions about the relevance and level of
human creativity and involvement in the process. We expand on, and explore
aspects of these questions in this pilot study. We observe participants play
through three different play modes in crea.blender, each aligned with
established creativity assessment methods. In these modes, players "blend"
existing images into new images under varying constraints. Our study indicates
that crea.blender provides a playful experience, affords players a sense of
control over the interface, and elicits different types of player behavior,
supporting further study of the tool for use in a scalable, playful, creativity
assessment.Comment: 4 page, 6 figures, CHI Pla
The evolution of early symbolic behavior in Homo sapiens
Abstract: Early human symbolic behavior is challenging to address. We used ancient engravings from the South-African Blombos and Diepkloof archeological sites in a number of controlled cognitive experiments to qualify discussions about the early evolution of human symbolic traditions. We found that the engravings evolved over a period of 40 000 years to become more salient to the human eye, increasingly expressive of human intent, and easier to reproduce from memory. In other words, they became more effective âtools for the mindâ. Our experiments suggest that the engravings served as decorations and expressions of socially-transmitted cultural traditions, but not as denotational symbolic signs, which has been previously assumed
On the social nature of abstraction: cognitive implications of interaction and diversity
The human capacity for abstraction is remarkable. We effortlessly form abstract representations from varied experiences, generalising and flexibly transferring experiences and knowledge between contexts, which can facilitate reasoning, problem-solving, and learning across many domains. The cognitive process of abstraction, however, is often portrayed and investigated as an individual process. This paper addresses how cognitive processes of abstraction - together with other aspects of human reasoning and problem solving - are fundamentally shaped and modulated by online social interaction. Starting from a general distinction between convergent thinking, divergent thinking, and processes of abstraction, we address how social interaction shapes information processing differently depending on cognitive demands, social coordination, and task ecologies. In particular, we suggest that processes of abstraction are facilitated by the interactive sharing and integration of varied individual experiences. To this end, we also discuss how the dynamics of group interactions vary as a function of group composition; that is, in terms of the similarity and diversity between the group members. We conclude by outlining the role of cognitive diversity in interactive processes and consider the importance of group diversity in processes of abstraction