---
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.'
altloc:
- http://www.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Papers/Harnad/harnad01.cangelosi-greco.pdf
chapter: ~
commentary: ~
commref: ~
confdates: ~
conference: ~
confloc: ~
contact_email: ~
creators_id: []
creators_name:
- family: Cangelosi
given: Angelo
honourific: ''
lineage: ''
- family: Greco
given: Alberto
honourific: ''
lineage: ''
- family: Harnad
given: Stevan
honourific: ''
lineage: ''
date: 2002
date_type: published
datestamp: 2002-03-12
department: ~
dir: disk0/00/00/21/32
edit_lock_since: ~
edit_lock_until: ~
edit_lock_user: ~
editors_id: []
editors_name:
- family: Cangelosi
given: A
honourific: ''
lineage: ''
- family: Parisi
given: D
honourific: ''
lineage: ''
eprint_status: archive
eprintid: 2132
fileinfo: /style/images/fileicons/application_pdf.png;/2132/3/harnad01.cangelosi%2Dgreco.pdf
full_text_status: public
importid: ~
institution: ~
isbn: ~
ispublished: pub
issn: ~
item_issues_comment: []
item_issues_count: 0
item_issues_description: []
item_issues_id: []
item_issues_reported_by: []
item_issues_resolved_by: []
item_issues_status: []
item_issues_timestamp: []
item_issues_type: []
keywords: 'perceptual learning, symbol grounding, categorical perception, categorization, evolution of language, neural nets'
lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:54:54
latitude: ~
longitude: ~
metadata_visibility: show
note: ~
number: ~
pagerange: ~
pubdom: FALSE
publication: Simulating the Evolution of Language
publisher: 'Springer, London'
refereed: FALSE
referencetext: |+
Andrews J, Livingston K, Harnad S (1998) Categorical perception effects induced by
category learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and
Cognition, 24: 732-753
Berlin B, Kay P (1969) Basic color terms: Their universality and evolution. University of
California Press, Berkley
Cangelosi A, Greco A, Harnad S (2000) From robotic toil to symbolic theft: Grounding
transfer from entry-level to higher-level categories. Connection Science, 12: 143-162
Cangelosi A, Harnad S (in press) The adaptive advantage of symbolic theft over
sensorimotor toil: Grounding language in perceptual categories. Evolution of
Communication
Christiansen MH, Chater N (1999) Connectionist natural language processing: The state of
the art. Cognitive Science, 23: 417-437
Deacon TW (1997) The Symbolic Species: The coevolution of language and human brain
London: Penguin
Elman JL (1990) Finding structure in time. Cognitive Science, 14: 179-211
Fodor JA (1976) The Language of thought, Thomas Y Crowell, New York
Goldberg DE (1989) Genetic algorithms in search, optimization, and machine learning.
Addison-Wesley, Reading MA
Goldstone R (1994) Influences of categorization of perceptual discrimination. Journal of
Experimental Psychology: General, 123: 178-200
Greco A, Cangelosi A (1999) Language and the acquisition of implicit and explicit
knowledge: A pilot study using neural networks. Cognitive Systems, 5: 148-165
Harnad S (ed) (1987) Categorical perception: The groundwork of cognition. Cambridge
University Press, New York
Harnad S (1990) The symbol grounding problem. Physica D, 42: 335-346
Harnad S (1996) The origin of words: A psychophysical hypothesis. In: Velichkovsky BM,
Rumbaugh DM (eds) Communicating meaning: The evolution and development of
language. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah NJ
Harnad S, Hanson SJ, Lubin J (1991) Categorical perception and the evolution of supervised
learning in neural nets. In: Powers DW, Reeker L. (eds) Proceedings of the AAAI Spring
Symposium on Machine Learning of Natural Language and Ontology
Harnad S, Hanson SJ, Lubin, J (1995) Learned categorical perception in neural nets:
Implications for symbol grounding. In: Honavar V, Uhr L (eds) Symbol processors and
connectionist network models in artificial intelligence and cognitive modelling: Steps
toward principled integration. Academic Press, pp 191-206
Hurford J (1998) Review of Terrence Deacon, 1997 The Symbolic Species: The co-evolution
of language and the human brain. The Times Literary Supplement, October 23rd,
1998, 34
Jacobs RA, Kosslyn SM (1994) Encoding shape and spatial relations: The role of receptive
field size in coordinating complementary representations. Cognitive Science, 18: 361-386
Kaplan F (2000) Talking AIBO: First experimentation of verbal interactions with an
autonomous four-legged robot. In: Nijholt A, Heylen D, Jokinen K (eds) Learning to
behave: Interacting agents. CELE-TWENTE Workshop on Language Technology, pp 57-63
Kirby S (2000) Syntax without natural selection: How compositionality emerges from
vocabulary in a population of learners. In: Knight C, Studdert-Kennedy M, Hurford J (eds)
The evolutionary emergence of language: Social function and the origins of linguistic
form. Cambridge University Press, pp 303-323
Nakisa RC, Plunkett K (1998) Evolution of a rapidly learned representation for speech.
Language and Cognitive Processes, 13: 105-127
Oliphant M, Batali J (1997) Learning and the emergence of coordinated communication
Centre for Research in Language Newsletter, 11(1)
Parisi D (1997) An Artificial Life approach to language. Mind and Language, 59, 121-146
Peirce CS (1978) Collected Papers (Vol II: Element of Logic). In: Hartshorne C, Weiss P
(eds), Belknap Cambridge, MA
Pevtzow R, Harnad S (1997) Warping similarity space in category learning by human
subjects: The role of task difficulty. In: Ramscar M, Hahn U, Cambouropolos E, Pain H
(eds) Proceedings of SimCat 1997: Interdisciplinary Workshop on Similarity and
Categorization. Department of Artificial Intelligence, Edinburgh University, pp 189-195
Plunkett K, Sinha C, Møller MF, Strandsby O (1992) Symbol grounding or the emergence
of symbols? Vocabulary growth in children and a connectionist net. Connection Science,
4: 293-312
Pylyshyn ZW (1984) Computation and cognition. MIT Press, Bradford Books, Cambridge
MA
Rumelhart DE, McClelland JL, the PDP Research Group (eds) (1986) Parallel distributed
processing: Explorations in the microstructure of cognition (Vol 1: Foundations). MIT
Press, Cambridge MA
Savage-Rumbaugh S, Rumbaugh DM (1978) Symbolization, language, and Chimpanzees: A
theoretical reevaluation on Initial language acquisition processes in four Young Pan
troglodytes. Brain and Language, 6: 265-300
Schafer G, Mareschal D (2001) Modeling infant speech sound discrimination using simple
associative networks. Infancy, 2(1)
Searle JR (1982) The Chinese room revisited. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 5: 345-348
Steels L (1996) Self-organising vocabularies. In: Langton CG, Shimohara K (eds)
Proceedings of the ALIFE V. MIT Press, Cambridge MA, pp 179-184
Steels L, Kaplan F (1999) Collective learning and semiotic dynamics. In: Floreano D,
Nicoud JD, Mondada F (eds) Proceedings of ECAL99 the Fifth European Conference on
Artificial Life (Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence). Springer-Verlag, Berlin, pp 679-688
Steels L, Vogt P (1997) Grounding adaptive language games in robotic agents. In: Husband
P, Harvey I (eds) Proceedings of the Fourth European Conference on Artificial Life. MIT
Press, Cambridge MA, pp 474-482
Tijsseling A, Harnad S (1997) Warping similarity space in category learning by backprop
nets. In: Ramscar M, Hahn U, Cambouropolos E, Pain H (eds) Proceedings of SimCat
1997: Interdisciplinary Workshop on Similarity and Categorization. Department of
Artificial Intelligence, Edinburgh University, pp 263-269
relation_type: []
relation_uri: []
reportno: ~
rev_number: 12
series: ~
source: ~
status_changed: 2007-09-12 16:43:05
subjects:
- percep-cog-psy
succeeds: ~
suggestions: ~
sword_depositor: ~
sword_slug: ~
thesistype: ~
title: Symbol Grounding and the Symbolic Theft Hypothesis
type: bookchapter
userid: 63
volume: ~