Journal :: New Ideas in Psychology
2012
The structure and evolution of symbol
New Ideas in Psychology, 2012
Abstract The received opinion is that symbol is an evolutionary prerequisite for syntax. This paper shows two things: 1) symbol is not a monolithic phenomenon, and 2) symbol and syntax must have co-evolved. I argue that full-blown syntax requires only three building ...
Socio-cultural selection and the sculpting of the human genome: Cultures directional forces on evolution and development
New Ideas in Psychology, 2012
Abstract This paper argues for culture as a significant determinant of the modern human genome. As progress in the fields of genetics and evolutionary biology have gained greater insights into evolutionary process, aspects of classical proposals explaining how ...
2011
New Ideas in Psychology 29:298-311, 2011
Cognitive Robotics can be defined as the study of cognitive phenomena by their modeling in physical artifacts such as robots. This is a very lively and fascinating field which has already given fundamental contributions to our understanding of natural cognition. Nonetheless, ...MORE ⇓
Cognitive Robotics can be defined as the study of cognitive phenomena by their modeling in physical artifacts such as robots. This is a very lively and fascinating field which has already given fundamental contributions to our understanding of natural cognition. Nonetheless, robotics has to date addressed mainly very basic, low-level cognitive phenomena like sensory-motor coordination, perception, and navigation, and it is not clear how the current approach might scale up to explain high-level human cognition. In this paper we argue that a promising way to do that is to merge current ideas and methods of embodied cognition with the Russian tradition of theoretical psychology which views language not only as a communication system but also as a cognitive tool, that is by developing a Vygotskyan cognitive robotics. We substantiate this idea by discussing several domains in which language can improve basic cognitive abilities and permit the development of high-level cognition: learning, categorization, abstraction, memory, voluntary control, and mental life.
2008
Reconciling symbolic and dynamic aspects of language: Toward a dynamic psycholinguisticsPDF
New ideas in psychology 26(2):193--207, 2008
The present paper examines natural language as a dynamical system. The oft-expressed view of language as a static system of symbols is here seen as an element of a larger system that embraces the mutuality of symbols and dynamics. Following along the lines of ...
2007
Constructions as categories of language
New Ideas in Psychology 25(2):70--86, 2007
What causes children to categorize distinct utterances they hear into a constructional generalization? That is, what makes subjects create a constructional category instead of treating each utterance as a distinct unrelated idiom? One simple factor that encourages ...
Frequency effects in language acquisition, language use, and diachronic changePDF
New Ideas in Psychology 25(2):108--127, 2007
Recent work in psychology and linguistics has shown that frequency of occurrence is an important determinant of language acquisition, language use, and diachronic change. This paper surveys the effects of frequency on the use and development of language and ...
1999
A motor theory of how consciousness within language evolution led to mathematical cognition: origin of mathematics in the braindoi.orgPDF
New Ideas in Psychology 17(3):215-235, 1999
Invariance associated with Pribram's (1971, 1991) motor images-of-achievement (imaged consequences of movement) is proposed to provide the fundamental neurophysiological basis for mathematical cognition [Pribram, K.(1971) Languages of the brain. Englewood ...