Arthur B. Markman (1998) How to Conclude There are Rules in the Head
. Psycoloquy: 9(72) Representation Mediation (11)
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Psycoloquy 9(72): How to Conclude There are Rules in the Head
HOW TO CONCLUDE THERE ARE RULES IN THE HEAD
Reply to Garnham 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
There is much food for thought in Garnham's (1998)
commentary on our target article (Markman & Dietrich, 1998).
Garnham objects to our endorsement of rule-governed mediating
states. While he allows for using such states when describing
cognitive capacities, he urges us, and all of cognitive science, to
eschew rules as actual generators of behavior. Apparently, rules,
for Garnham, are theoretical fictions like perfectly elastic balls
and frictionless surfaces. We disagree with him on this point. Our
interpretation of the relevant psychological data is that there are
probably some rules that generate some behavior. Furthermore,
given that there are rules that can be used to describe a certain
kind of behavior, and given that other related processes are also
in evidence, postulating that the rules are real and actually
generate the behavior is indeed warranted.
Keywords
compositionality, computation, connectionism, discrete
states, dynamic Systems, explanation, information, meaning,
mediating states, representation, rules, semantic Content symbols
References
- Garnham, A. (1998) Rules in Whose Mind: The Modeler's or the Modeled's? PSYCOLOQUY 9(62) ftp://ftp.princeton.edu/pub/harnad/Psycoloquy/1998.volume.9/psycoloquy.98.9.62.representation-mediation.6.garnham
- Marcus, G. F., Brinkmann, U., Clahsen, H., Wiese, R., & Pinker, S. (1995). German inflection: The exception that proves the rule. Cognitive Psychology, 29, 189-256.
- 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
- Pinker, S., & Prince, A. (1988). On language and connectionism: Analysis of a parallel distributed processing model of language acquisition. Cognition, 28, 73-193.
- Thelen, E., & Smith, L. B. (1994). A Dynamic Systems Approach to the Development of Cognition and Action. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.