gilbert@cs.glasgow.ac.UK (Gilbert Cockton) (08/05/88)
From: Gilbert Cockton <gilbert%cs.glasgow.ac.uk@NSS.Cs.Ucl.AC.UK> Date: Tue, 26 Jul 88 05:10 EDT To: ailist@ai.ai.mit.edu Subject: Dual encoding, propostional memory and the epistemics of imagination >Now think of all the >other stuff your episodic memory has to be able to represent. How is this >representing done? Maybe after a while following this thought you will begin >to see McCarthys footsteps on the trail in front of you. > >Pat Hayes Watch out for the marsh two feet ahead though :-) Computationalists who are bound to believe in propositional representations (yes, I encode all my knowledge of a scene into little FOPC like tuples, honest) have little time for dual (or more) coding theories of memory. The dual coding theory, which normally distinguishes between iconic and semantic memory, has caused endless debate, more often than not because of the tenacity of researchers who MUST, rationally or otherwise, believe in a single propositional encoding, or else admit limitations to computational paradigms. Any competent text book on cognitive psychology, and especially ones on memory, will cover the debate on episodic, iconic and semantic memory (as well as short term memory, working memory and other gatherings of angels in restricted spaces). These books will lay several trails in other directions to McCarthy's. The barbeque spots on the way are better too. Pat's argument hinges on the demand that we think about something called representation (eh?) and then describe the encoding. The minute you are tricked into thinking about bit level encoding protocols, the computationalists have you. Sure enough, the best thing you can imagine is something like formal logic. PDP networks will work of course, but you can't of course IMAGINE the contents of the network, and thus they cannot be a representation :-) Since when did reality have anything to do with the quality of our imagination, especially when the imaginands are rigged from the outset? -- Gilbert Cockton, Department of Computing Science, The University, Glasgow gilbert@uk.ac.glasgow.cs <europe>!ukc!glasgow!gilbert