Arthur B. Markman (1998) Mediating States as Consistent Probablistic States in a Robot
. Psycoloquy: 9(65) Representation Mediation (9)
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Psycoloquy 9(65): Mediating States as Consistent Probablistic States in a Robot
MEDIATING STATES AS CONSISTENT PROBABLISTIC STATES IN A ROBOT
Reply to Andreae on Representation-Mediation
Arthur B. Markman
Department of Psychology
University of Texas
Austin, TX 78712
http://www.psy.utexas.edu/psy/FACULTY/Markman/index.html
Eric Dietrich
PACCS Program
Binghamton University
Binghamton, NY
http://www.binghamton.edu/philosophy/home/faculty/index.htm
markman@psy.utexas.edu
dietrich@binghamton.edu
Abstract
Andreae (1998) describes a robot that appears to
implement one type of mediating state suggested by Markman &
Dietrich (1998) as the central notion of mental representation.
Andreae's robot looks quite interesting, and fits nicely the
theoretical constraints on mediating states. Reflection on
Andreae's robot yields a couple of interesting points about
mediating states. We close by defending our use of Dretske's
notion of information, rather than Shannon's.
Keywords
compositionality, computation, connectionism, discrete
states, dynamic Systems, explanation, information, meaning,
mediating states, representation, rules, semantic Content symbols
References
- Andreae, J. (1998) A Robot Brain with Mediating States. PSYCOLOQUY 9(59) ftp://ftp.princeton.edu/pub/harnad/Psycoloquy/1998.volume.9/psycoloquy.98.9.59.representation-mediation.5.andreae
- Dretske, F. (1981). Knowledge and the Flow of Information. Cambridge, MA: MIT/Bradford.
- Markman, A.B. & Dietrich, E. (1998) In Defense of Representation as Mediation. PSYCOLOQUY 9(48) ftp://ftp.princeton.edu/pub/harnad/Psycoloquy/1998.volume.9/psyc.98.9.48.representation-mediation.1.markman
- Shannon, C. (1949). The Mathematical Theory of Communication. Urbana, IL: Univ. of Illinois Press.