creators_name: Parisi, D creators_name: Denaro, D creators_name: Cangelosi, A type: preprint datestamp: 1998-03-26 lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:54:07 metadata_visibility: show title: Categories and Word Meanings in Adaptive Organisms subjects: cog-psy subjects: comp-sci-neural-nets full_text_status: public keywords: adaptive behavior, artificial life, collective/social behavior, communication, agent-environment interaction, cognition, neural networks abstract: Categories and word meanings tend to be interpreted as single entities that are activated in the mind when an individual categorizes the world or uses language. We argue that this view is mistaken by using models based on neural networks and adaptive behavior simulations. Connectionist simulations of populations of organisms that live and reproduce in an environment show that categories and word meanings are open and changing collections of activation patterns in the network's internal units rather than single activation patterns. date: 1998 date_type: published refereed: FALSE citation: Parisi, D and Denaro, D and Cangelosi, A (1998) Categories and Word Meanings in Adaptive Organisms. [Preprint] document_url: http://cogprints.org/618/2/ca-ica98.ps