Journal

Volume 13, Issue 3 (September 30, 2012)

5 articles

• The Varieties of Computation: A Reply
  by David J. Chalmers
  J. CS. 2012, 13(3), 211-248;
  Abstract (No Abstract)1st paragraph:I am grateful to the twelve commentators on my article “A Computational Foundation for the Study of Cognition.” The commentaries reflect a great deal of thought by authors many of whom have thought about this topic in more depth than I have in recent years. In many cases, ... [Read more].
  Abstract (No Abstract)1st paragraph:I am grateful to the twelve commentators on my article “A Computational Foundation for the Study of Cognition.” The commentaries reflect a great deal of thought by authors many of whom have thought about this topic in more depth than I have in recent years. In many cases, they raise issues that I did not anticipate when I wrote the article and that require me to rethink various aspects of the account I gave there. [Collapse]
• The Interaction of Syntactic and Lexical Information Sources in Language Processing: The Case of the Noun-verb Ambiguity
  by Evelina Fedorenko, Steven T. Piantadosi, & Edward Gibson
  J. CS. 2012, 13(3), 249-285;
  Abstract This paper reports the results of a lexical decision experiment and a selfpaced reading experiment that investigate the interaction between syntactic and lexical information in on-line language processing, using the noun-verb ambiguity in English. The results of both experiments provide support for ... [Read more].
  Abstract This paper reports the results of a lexical decision experiment and a selfpaced reading experiment that investigate the interaction between syntactic and lexical information in on-line language processing, using the noun-verb ambiguity in English. The results of both experiments provide support for the hypothesis whereby syntactic and lexical information are two independent factors in the process of sentence comprehension, consistent with previous work in the sense-ambiguity processing literature. Our results therefore add to the body of literature that demonstrates that the process of language comprehension is guided by numerous independent information sources, rather than syntactic information alone, as some of the earlier proposals in the field of sentence processing hypothesized. [Collapse]
• Learning Biases for Vowel Height Harmony
  by Sara Finley & William Badecker
  J. CS. 2012, 13(3), 287-327;
  Abstract We test the role of phonetic grounding and typological tendencies on learning biases for vowel height harmony, a phonological process in which vowels within a word are required to share phonological features for height. Several height harmony languages are constrained such that vowels ([i, e]) under... [Read more].
  Abstract We test the role of phonetic grounding and typological tendencies on learning biases for vowel height harmony, a phonological process in which vowels within a word are required to share phonological features for height. Several height harmony languages are constrained such that vowels ([i, e]) undergo harmony following both front and back vowels, while back vowels ([u, o]) tend to only undergo harmony following other (often identical) back vowels. In Experiment 1, participants were trained on a height harmony pattern with either front vowel suffixes or back vowel suffixes. Participants reliably displayed harmonic responses only when the suffixes contained a front vowel, despite exposure to back vowel suffixes. Experiment 2 tested for generalization to novel vowel harmony triggers, exposing learners to tense front and back vowel stems or front vowel stems, with a front vowel suffix alternation. Participants generalized to front lax vowels but did not generalize to tense back vowels, suggesting a bias for height harmony languages in which the trigger and target share the same value for backness. [Collapse]
• Memory, Memes, Cognition, and Mental Illness – Toward a New Synthesis
  by Hoyle Leigh
  J. CS. 2012, 13(3), 329-354;
  Abstract When memory became portable in the course of evolution, the information content of memory became replicable as memes. Propagation of memes started with imitation, but with the advent of human language, memes thrived and caused enhanced brain capacity for meme processing through cognition. Culture co... [Read more].
  Abstract When memory became portable in the course of evolution, the information content of memory became replicable as memes. Propagation of memes started with imitation, but with the advent of human language, memes thrived and caused enhanced brain capacity for meme processing through cognition. Culture comprises of endemic memes that enter young brains and may be protective or pathogenic. Childhood nurturance and stress enter the brain as memes and cause epigenetic changes in genes for future resilience or vulnerability. Personal development is the process of interaction among the epigenetically determined brain, resident memes, and newly introduced memes. The selfplex, the sense of self, represents a dominant memeplex formed through development, and consists of several memeplexes usually known as roles. In certain persons, there may be conflicting selfplexes, one dominant and the other(s) repressed. Mental health is attained when there is a memetic democracy, where the selfplexes are tolerated, and may shift and adapt. Stress attenuates resident memes including selfplex and introduces stress memes that may awaken/ strengthen repressed memes, resulting in a memetic anarchy and a final common pathway psychiatric syndrome. Treatment of such syndromes should be geared toward both the brain state and suppression of pathologic memes. Broad spectrum and specific meme-directed therapies should be considered. [Collapse]
• Metaphors are Conceptual Schemata that are Emergent Over Tokens of Use
  by Daniel R. Sanford
  J. CS. 2012, 13(3), 355-392;
  Abstract This paper presents the view that metaphors are conceptual schemata that emerge, for individual speakers, over metaphorical tokens of use to which they are exposed, and that the conceptual structures which comprise metaphor are subject to frequency effects. The theory posits that metaphorical conven... [Read more].
  Abstract This paper presents the view that metaphors are conceptual schemata that emerge, for individual speakers, over metaphorical tokens of use to which they are exposed, and that the conceptual structures which comprise metaphor are subject to frequency effects. The theory posits that metaphorical conventionalization, at the level of both conceptual metaphors and particular expressions, reflects the operation of linguistic frequency effects. Key properties of metaphor—the unevenness of metaphorical mappings, the gradedness of metaphor, idiosyncracy of meaning for individual expressions, and the emergence of metaphorical ability in children—are accounted for in an exemplar theorybased model of emergence for metaphorical schemata. It is asserted here that a usage-based view of language, and the tools of an approach whereby language processing and storage are seen as driven by frequency effects, provide the best lens for understanding the properties of metaphor in all of its types. [Collapse]