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Symbol Grounding and the Symbolic Theft Hypothesis

Cangelosi, Angelo and Greco, Alberto and Harnad, Stevan (2002) Symbol Grounding and the Symbolic Theft Hypothesis. [Book Chapter]

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Abstract

Computational simulations are used to model the following: (1) category learning through sensorimotor trial and error ("sensorimotor toil") and how it generates categorical perception (decreased between-category similarity and increased within-category similarity); (2) symbol grounding (the connection between symbols and the sensorimotor categories that they name); (3) the origins of language as the capacity to acquire categories indirectly, by definition alone ("symbolic theft"); and (4) the evolutionary advantage of acquiring categories by this symbolic theft instead of sensorimotor toil.

Item Type:Book Chapter
Keywords:perceptual learning, symbol grounding, categorical perception, categorization, evolution of language, neural nets
Subjects:Psychology > Perceptual Cognitive Psychology
ID Code:2132
Deposited By: Harnad, Stevan
Deposited On:12 Mar 2002
Last Modified:11 Mar 2011 08:54

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