rapaport@CS.BUFFALO.EDU (William J. Rapaport) (04/08/88)
STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT BUFFALO
The Steering Committee of the
GRADUATE STUDIES AND RESEARCH INITIATIVE IN
COGNITIVE AND LINGUISTIC SCIENCES
PRESENTS
ZENON PYLYSHYN
Center for Cognitive Science
University of Western Ontario
ENCODING "HERE" AND "THERE" IN THE VISUAL FIELD:
A Sketch of the FINST Indexing Hypothesis and Its Implications
I introduce a distinction between encoding the location of a feature
within some frame of reference, and individuating or indexing a feature
so later processes can refer to and access it. A resource-limited
indexing mechanism called a FINST is posited for this purpose. FINSTs
have the property that they index features in a way that is (in most
cases) transparent to their retinal location, and hence "point to" scene
locations. The basic assumption is that no operations upon sets of
features can occur unless all the features are first FINSTed.
A number of implications of this hypothesis will be explored in this
talk, including its relevance to phenomena such as the spatial stability
of visual percepts, the ability to track several independently moving
targets in parallel, the ability to detect a class of spatial relations
requiring the use of "visual routines", and various mental imagery
phenomena. I will also discuss one of the main reasons for postulating
FINSTs: the possibility that such indexes might be used to bind per-
ceived locations to arguments in motor commands, thereby serving as a
step towards perceptual-motor coordination.
Monday, April 25, 1988
4:00 P.M.
280 Park, Amherst Campus
There will also be an informal evening discussion at a place and time to
be announced. Call Bill Rapaport (Dept. of Computer Science, 636-3193
or 3180) for further information.