[sci.psychology] 2 Talks at MIT on Searle and Symbol Grounding

harnad@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (S. R. Harnad) (01/18/90)

          Two talks at MIT by Stevan Harnad

             TUESDAY JANUARY 23
               10 am and 2 pm 
	  Building 37: Room 37-212

(1)  Searle's Chinese Room and the Symbol Grounding Problem

               10 am  Room 37-212

A discussion of the connection between Searle's celebrated thought
experiment and a very deep problem in philosophy and in cognitive
modeling: How are our symbols connected to the objects they stand for?

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(2)    Grounding Symbols in Sensory Category Learning

                2 pm  Room 37-212

In "categorical perception," a continuous sensory dimension is
perceived as bounded "chunks." Could sensory categories, and the
feature-detectors that pick them out, be the groundwork of cognition?

-- 
Stevan Harnad  Department of Psychology  Princeton University
harnad@clarity.princeton.edu       srh@flash.bellcore.com
harnad@elbereth.rutgers.edu    harnad@pucc.bitnet    (609)-921-7771