******* Language, Cognition, and Computation Seminar Series *******

 
Title                      The Brain Doesn't Work That Way: The Emergence of Representation

Speaker                Mark Bickhard

Affiliation            Lehigh University

Date                     Thursday, May 3, 2007

Time                    2:30 pm

Location              E15-209 (The Wiesner Room)


Abstract

The functioning of the brain cannot be understood in terms of neurons as threshold switches. Neurons don't work that way, and, in addition, neurons are not the only functional units in the brain. When we look at how the brain actually functions, we find strong support for an alternative - microgenetic - model of central nervous system functioning. Microgenesis, in turn, has strong implications for the nature of representation and cognition. It forces an anticipatory model of representation. This model, in turn, converges with the Interactive model of the nature and emergence of representation that has been independently developed on conceptual grounds over the last decades.

 

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