Embodied Cognition: BBS Call for Commentators

Below is the abstract of a forthcoming BBS target article on: DEICTIC CODES FOR THE EMBODIMENT OF COGNITION by Dana H. Ballard, Mary M. Hayhoe, Polly K. Pook, & Rajesh P. N. Rao This article has been accepted for publication in Behavioral and Brain Sciences (BBS), an international, interdisciplinary journal providing Open Peer Commentary on important and controversial current research in the biobehavioral and cognitive sciences. Commentators must be BBS Associates or nominated by a BBS Associate. To be considered as a commentator for this article, to suggest other appropriate commentators, or for information about how to become a BBS Associate, please send EMAIL to: bbs(a)cogsci.soton.ac.uk or write to: Behavioral and Brain Sciences Department of Psychology University of Southampton Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BJ UNITED KINGDOM http://www.princeton.edu/~harnad/bbs/ http://www.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/bbs/ ftp://ftp.princeton.edu/pub/harnad/BBS/ ftp://ftp.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/pub/bbs/ gopher://gopher.princeton.edu:70/11/.libraries/.pujournals If you are not a BBS Associate, please send your CV and the name of a BBS Associate (there are currently over 10,000 worldwide) who is familiar with your work. All past BBS authors, referees and commentators are eligible to become BBS Associates. To help us put together a balanced list of commentators, please give some indication of the aspects of the topic on which you would bring your areas of expertise to bear if you were selected as a commentator. An electronic draft of the full text is available for inspection by anonymous ftp (or gopher or world-wide-web) according to the instructions that follow after the abstract. ____________________________________________________________________ DEICTIC CODES FOR THE EMBODIMENT OF COGNITION Dana H. Ballard, Mary M. Hayhoe, Polly K. Pook, and Rajesh P. N. Rao Computer Science Department University of Rochester Rochester, NY 14627, USA {dana, mary, pook, rao}(a)cs.rochester.edu KEYWORDS: deictic computations; embodiment; working memory; natural tasks; eye movements; brain computation; binding; sensory-motor tasks; pointers. ABSTRACT: To describe phenomena that occur at different time scales, computational models of the brain must necessarily incorporate different levels of abstraction. We argue that at time scales of approximately one-third of a second, orienting movements of the body play a crucial role in cognition and form a useful computational level. This level is more abstract than that used to capture neural phenomena yet is framed at a level of abstraction below that traditionally used to study high-level cognitive processes such as reasoning. We term this level the embodiment level. At the embodiment level, the constraints of the physical system determine the nature of cognitive operations. The key synergy is that, at time scales of about one-third second, the natural sequentiality of body movements can be matched to the natural computational economies of sequential decision systems. The way this is done is through a system of implicit reference termed deictic, whereby pointing movements are used to bind objects in the world to cognitive programs. The focus of this paper is to study how deictic bindings enable the solution of natural tasks. We show how deictic computation provides a mechanism for representing the essential features that link external sensory data with internal cognitive programs and motor actions. In particular, we argue that one of the central features of cognition, working memory, can be related to moment-by-moment dispositions of body features such as eye movements and hand movements. -------------------------------------------------------------- To help you decide whether you would be an appropriate commentator for this article, an electronic draft is retrievable by anonymous ftp from ftp.princeton.edu according to the instructions below (the filename is bbs.ballard). Please do not prepare a commentary on this draft. Just let us know, after having inspected it, what relevant expertise you feel you would bring to bear on what aspect of the article. ------------------------------------------------------------- These files are also on the World Wide Web and the easiest way to retrieve them is with Netscape, Mosaic, gopher, archie, veronica, etc. Here are some of the URLs you can use to get to the BBS Archive: http://www.princeton.edu/~harnad/bbs/ http://www.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/bbs/Archive/bbs.ballard.html ftp://ftp.princeton.edu/pub/harnad/BBS/bbs.ballard ftp://ftp.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/pub/bbs/Archive/bbs.ballard gopher://gopher.princeton.edu:70/11/.libraries/.pujournals To retrieve a file by ftp from an Internet site, type either: ftp ftp.princeton.edu or ftp 128.112.128.1 When you are asked for your login, type: anonymous Enter password as queried (your password is your actual userid: yourlogin(a)yourhost.whatever.whatever - be sure to include the "@") cd /pub/harnad/BBS To show the available files, type: ls Next, retrieve the file you want with (for example): get bbs.ballard When you have the file(s) you want, type: quit ----------