Скачать или смотреть John Hummel -- Beyond the binding problem: From basic affordances to symbolic thought

Prof John E. Hummel
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Abstract: Human cognitive abilities seem qualitatively different from the cognitive abilities of other primates, a difference Penn, Holyoak, and Povinelli (2008) attribute to role-based relational reasoning—inferences and generalizations based on the relational roles to which objects (and other relations) are bound, rather than just the features of the objects themselves. Role-based relational reasoning depends on the ability to dynamically bind arguments to relational roles. But dynamic binding cannot be sufficient for relational thinking: Some non-human animals solve the dynamic binding problem, at least in some domains; and many non-human species generalize affordances to completely novel objects and scenes, a kind of universal generalization that likely depends on dynamic binding. If they can solve the dynamic binding problem, then why can they not reason about relations? What are they missing? I will present simulations with the LISA model of analogical reasoning (Hummel & Holyoak, 1997, 2003) suggesting that the missing pieces are multi-role integration (the capacity to combine multiple role bindings into complete relations) and structure mapping (the capacity to map different systems of role bindings onto one another). When LISA is deprived of either of these capacities, it can still generalize affordances universally, but it cannot reason symbolically; granted both abilities, LISA enjoys the full power of relational (symbolic) thought. I speculate that one reason it may have taken relational reasoning so long to evolve is that it required evolution to solve both problems simultaneously, since neither multi-role integration nor structure mapping appears to confer any adaptive advantage over simple role binding on its own.

Speaker bio: John Hummel is Professor of Cognitive Psychology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he is Director of the Relational Perception and Thinking Laboratory. He completed his doctorate at the University of Minnesota in 1990 and spent 14 years as a Professor in the Psychology Department at UCLA before moving to the University of Illinois in 2005. His research combines computational modelling and empirical studies to investigate the nature of relational representation and processing in domains such as visual processing, reasoning and thinking, and category learning. Central to Professor Hummel's work is the development of neuro-symbolic computational models such as the LISA (Learning and Inference with Schemas and Analogies) model of analogical mapping, analogy- and rule-based inference, and schema induction (Hummel & Holyoak, 1997, 2003).

Analogical Minds Seminar, September 30, 2021
www.analogicalminds.com