?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Adc&rft.title=The+adaptive+advantage+of+symbolic+theft+over+sensorimotor+toil%3A+Grounding+language+in+perceptual+categories&rft.creator=Cangelosi%2C+Angelo&rft.creator=Harnad%2C+Stevan&rft.subject=Computational+Linguistics&rft.subject=Evolution&rft.subject=Cognitive+Psychology&rft.subject=Neural+Nets&rft.subject=Artificial+Intelligence&rft.subject=Evolutionary+Psychology&rft.description=Using+neural+nets+to+simulate+learning+and+the+genetic+algorithm+to+simulate+evolution+in+a+toy+world+of+mushrooms+and+mushroom-foragers%2C+we+place+two+ways+of+acquiring+categories+into+direct+competition+with+one+another%3A+In+(1)+%22sensorimotor+toil%2C%E2%80%9D+new+categories+are+acquired+through+real-time%2C+feedback-corrected%2C+trial+and+error+experience+in+sorting+them.+In+(2)+%22symbolic+theft%2C%E2%80%9D+new+categories+are+acquired+by+hearsay+from+propositions+%E2%80%93+boolean+combinations+of+symbols+describing+them.+In+competition%2C+symbolic+theft+always+beats+sensorimotor+toil.++We+hypothesize+that+this+is+the+basis+of+the+adaptive+advantage+of+language.+Entry-level+categories+must+still+be+learned+by+toil%2C+however%2C+to+avoid+an+infinite+regress+(the+%E2%80%9Csymbol+grounding+problem%E2%80%9D).+Changes+in+the+internal+representations+of+categories+must+take+place+during+the+course+of+learning+by+toil.+These+changes+can+be+analyzed+in+terms+of+the+compression+of+within-category+similarities+and+the+expansion+of+between-category+differences.+These+allow+regions+of+similarity+space+to+be+separated%2C+bounded+and+named%2C+and+then+the+names+can+be+combined+and+recombined+to+describe+new+categories%2C+grounded+recursively+in+the+old+ones.+Such+compression%2Fexpansion+effects%2C+called+%22categorical+perception%22+(CP)%2C+have+previously+been+reported+with+categories+acquired+by+sensorimotor+toil%3B+we+show+that+they+can+also+arise+from+symbolic+theft+alone.+The+picture+of+natural+language+and+its+origins+that+emerges+from+this+analysis+is+that+of+a+powerful+hybrid+symbolic%2Fsensorimotor+capacity%2C+infinitely+superior+to+its+purely+sensorimotor+precursors%2C+but+still+grounded+in+and+dependent+on+them.+It+can+spare+us+from+untold+time+and+effort+learning+things+the+hard+way%2C+through+direct+experience%2C+but+it+remain+anchored+in+and+translatable+into+the+language+of+experience.&rft.date=2001&rft.type=Journal+(Paginated)&rft.type=PeerReviewed&rft.format=text%2Fhtml&rft.identifier=http%3A%2F%2Fcogprints.org%2F2036%2F1%2FCangelosi-Harnad-Eoc-2002.html&rft.format=application%2Fpdf&rft.identifier=http%3A%2F%2Fcogprints.org%2F2036%2F5%2FCangelosi-Harnad-EoC-2002.pdf&rft.identifier=++Cangelosi%2C+Angelo+and+Harnad%2C+Stevan++(2001)+The+adaptive+advantage+of+symbolic+theft+over+sensorimotor+toil%3A+Grounding+language+in+perceptual+categories.++%5BJournal+(Paginated)%5D+++++&rft.relation=http%3A%2F%2Fcogprints.org%2F2036%2F