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Concepts as plug & play devices

Research on concepts has focused on categorization. Categorization starts with a stimulus. Equally important are episodes that start with a thought. We engage in thinking to draw out new consequences from stored information, or to work out how to act. Each of the concepts out of which thought is con...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Shea, Nicholas
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9791472/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36571131
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0353
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author Shea, Nicholas
author_facet Shea, Nicholas
author_sort Shea, Nicholas
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description Research on concepts has focused on categorization. Categorization starts with a stimulus. Equally important are episodes that start with a thought. We engage in thinking to draw out new consequences from stored information, or to work out how to act. Each of the concepts out of which thought is constructed provides access to a large body of stored information. Access is not always just a matter of retrieving a stored belief (semantic memory). Often it depends on running a simulation. Simulation allows conceptual thought to draw on information in special-purpose systems, information stored in special-purpose computational dispositions and special-purpose representational structures. While the utility of simulation, prospection or imagination is widely appreciated, the role of concepts in the process is not well understood. This paper turns to cognitive and computational neuroscience for a model of how simulations enable thinkers to reach novel conclusions. Carried over to conceptual thought, the model suggests that concepts are ‘plug & play’ devices. The distinctive power of thought-driven simulation derives from the ability of concepts to plug into two kinds of structure at once: the combinatorial structure of a thought at one end and special-purpose structural representations at the other. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Concepts in interaction: social engagement and inner experiences’.
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spelling pubmed-97914722022-12-29 Concepts as plug & play devices Shea, Nicholas Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci Articles Research on concepts has focused on categorization. Categorization starts with a stimulus. Equally important are episodes that start with a thought. We engage in thinking to draw out new consequences from stored information, or to work out how to act. Each of the concepts out of which thought is constructed provides access to a large body of stored information. Access is not always just a matter of retrieving a stored belief (semantic memory). Often it depends on running a simulation. Simulation allows conceptual thought to draw on information in special-purpose systems, information stored in special-purpose computational dispositions and special-purpose representational structures. While the utility of simulation, prospection or imagination is widely appreciated, the role of concepts in the process is not well understood. This paper turns to cognitive and computational neuroscience for a model of how simulations enable thinkers to reach novel conclusions. Carried over to conceptual thought, the model suggests that concepts are ‘plug & play’ devices. The distinctive power of thought-driven simulation derives from the ability of concepts to plug into two kinds of structure at once: the combinatorial structure of a thought at one end and special-purpose structural representations at the other. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Concepts in interaction: social engagement and inner experiences’. The Royal Society 2023-02-13 2022-12-26 /pmc/articles/PMC9791472/ /pubmed/36571131 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0353 Text en © 2022 The Authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Articles
Shea, Nicholas
Concepts as plug & play devices
title Concepts as plug & play devices
title_full Concepts as plug & play devices
title_fullStr Concepts as plug & play devices
title_full_unstemmed Concepts as plug & play devices
title_short Concepts as plug & play devices
title_sort concepts as plug & play devices
topic Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9791472/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36571131
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0353
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