Cartographies of the mind: Generalization and relevance in cognitive landscapes
The problem of relevance, at individual agent scale – or how we decide what is adequate for our interpretation of the signs we encounter in the world – is a question that keeps reappearing in semiotics and other disciplines concerned with meaning. In this article I propose an approximation on releva...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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University of Tartu Press
2019-12-01
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| Series: | Sign Systems Studies |
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| Online Access: | https://ojs.utlib.ee/index.php/sss/article/view/16394 |
| _version_ | 1818866065642356736 |
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| author | Sergio Rodríguez Gómez |
| author_facet | Sergio Rodríguez Gómez |
| author_sort | Sergio Rodríguez Gómez |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The problem of relevance, at individual agent scale – or how we decide what is adequate for our interpretation of the signs we encounter in the world – is a question that keeps reappearing in semiotics and other disciplines concerned with meaning. In this article I propose an approximation on relevance that conceives meaning as a trajectory across a cognitive landscape. Unlike conventional accounts on relevance, which presuppose mental processes built on feature-based representations, my proposal suggests conceiving cognition as a fluid and emergent field of attractors basins that become specified and modified when experiences appear, and conceiving meaning as a trajectory across the cognitive field. Consequently, I suggest that when cognitive landscapes better fit world experience, agents’ categorizations will be more relevant. My proposal is mainly supported by two approaches: the enactivist notion of structural coupling and the theories of dynamic neural populations of Walter Freeman III. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-19T10:57:31Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-02aec5d82b1148b7a6a3fc4610feb2fc |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1406-4243 1736-7409 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-19T10:57:31Z |
| publishDate | 2019-12-01 |
| publisher | University of Tartu Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Sign Systems Studies |
| spelling | doaj.art-02aec5d82b1148b7a6a3fc4610feb2fc2022-12-21T20:24:44ZengUniversity of Tartu PressSign Systems Studies1406-42431736-74092019-12-01473/410.12697/SSS.2019.47.3-4.02Cartographies of the mind: Generalization and relevance in cognitive landscapesSergio Rodríguez Gómez0Departamento de Humanidades, Universidad de Bogotá Jorge Tadeo Lozano. Carrera 4 # 22–61, Bogotá, ColombiaThe problem of relevance, at individual agent scale – or how we decide what is adequate for our interpretation of the signs we encounter in the world – is a question that keeps reappearing in semiotics and other disciplines concerned with meaning. In this article I propose an approximation on relevance that conceives meaning as a trajectory across a cognitive landscape. Unlike conventional accounts on relevance, which presuppose mental processes built on feature-based representations, my proposal suggests conceiving cognition as a fluid and emergent field of attractors basins that become specified and modified when experiences appear, and conceiving meaning as a trajectory across the cognitive field. Consequently, I suggest that when cognitive landscapes better fit world experience, agents’ categorizations will be more relevant. My proposal is mainly supported by two approaches: the enactivist notion of structural coupling and the theories of dynamic neural populations of Walter Freeman III.https://ojs.utlib.ee/index.php/sss/article/view/16394relevancecategorizationgeneralizationcognitive landscapesemiotic scaffoldingneurodynamics |
| spellingShingle | Sergio Rodríguez Gómez Cartographies of the mind: Generalization and relevance in cognitive landscapes Sign Systems Studies relevance categorization generalization cognitive landscape semiotic scaffolding neurodynamics |
| title | Cartographies of the mind: Generalization and relevance in cognitive landscapes |
| title_full | Cartographies of the mind: Generalization and relevance in cognitive landscapes |
| title_fullStr | Cartographies of the mind: Generalization and relevance in cognitive landscapes |
| title_full_unstemmed | Cartographies of the mind: Generalization and relevance in cognitive landscapes |
| title_short | Cartographies of the mind: Generalization and relevance in cognitive landscapes |
| title_sort | cartographies of the mind generalization and relevance in cognitive landscapes |
| topic | relevance categorization generalization cognitive landscape semiotic scaffolding neurodynamics |
| url | https://ojs.utlib.ee/index.php/sss/article/view/16394 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT sergiorodriguezgomez cartographiesofthemindgeneralizationandrelevanceincognitivelandscapes |