Trivializing modularity. An associative-representational account of cognition

Titolo Rivista EPISTEMOLOGIA
Autori/Curatori Marco Mazzone
Anno di pubblicazione 2016 Fascicolo 2015/2
Lingua Inglese Numero pagine 15 P. 201-215 Dimensione file 166 KB
DOI 10.3280/EPIS2015-002003
Il DOI è il codice a barre della proprietà intellettuale: per saperne di più clicca qui

Qui sotto puoi vedere in anteprima la prima pagina di questo articolo.

Se questo articolo ti interessa, lo puoi acquistare (e scaricare in formato pdf) seguendo le facili indicazioni per acquistare il download credit. Acquista Download Credits per scaricare questo Articolo in formato PDF

Anteprima articolo

FrancoAngeli è membro della Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA)associazione indipendente e non profit per facilitare (attraverso i servizi tecnologici implementati da CrossRef.org) l’accesso degli studiosi ai contenuti digitali nelle pubblicazioni professionali e scientifiche

In the present paper I analyse the modularity thesis and, more specifically, the thesis of domain-specificity of processing. I argue that this thesis is not trivial only under the assumption of a variety of processes which differ from each other at the implementation level; otherwise, the variety of cognitive processes can only be explained as emergent on the basic mechanism of associative activation in that it operates on domain-specific representations, which is something that no one would deny. But that assumption is untenable: there are no other processes than associative activation (and inhibition) at the implementation level. Any claim to the contrary is the result of a conceptual confusion between two senses of "associative": a behavioural one, relative to which there are cognitive processes that exceed the ability to code elementary spatio-temporal contingencies, and one that lies instead at the implementation level. Since the assumption of a plurality of processes at the implementation level is untenable, the only viable interpretation of modularism (as far as domain-specificity is concerned) is a trivial one. By this I do not mean that the thesis is devoid of any content. However, its content is scarcely debatable, and far less thrilling than the debate has suggested so far.

Nel presente articolo intendo analizzare la tesi della modularità, e più specificamente la questione della specificità per dominio del processing. Sostengo che questa tesi non è banale solo sotto l’assunzione di una pluralità di processi che differiscono gli uni dagli altri al livello dell’implementazione: altrimenti la varietà dei processi può essere spiegata come emergente su un meccanismo di attivazione associativa che opera su rappresentazioni specifiche per dominio, una concezione della modularità che nessuno rifiuterebbe. Ma quell’assunzione va respinta: al livello dell’implementazione non ci sono altri processi che l’attivazione (e l’inibizione) associativa. La tesi contraria è il risultato di una confusione concettuale tra due accezioni di "associativo": una comportamentale, secondo la quale vi sono processi cognitivi che eccedono la semplice codifica di contingenze spazio-temporali, ed una che invece si pone al livello dell’implementazione. Se la tesi di una pluralità di processi al livello dell’implementazione non è sostenibile, rimane spazio solo per una interpretazione banale della modularità (almeno per quanto concerne la specificità per dominio). Con questo non intendo che la tesi sia priva di contenuto. Essa è però ben poco discutibile, e meno eccitante di quanto sia apparso finora.

Keywords:Modularità, associazione, specificità per dominio, memoria, attenzione cosciente

  1. Aron A.R. (2007). The neural basis of inhibition in cognitive control, The Neuroscientist, 13(3), pp. 214-228.
  2. Baars B.J. (1988). A Cognitive Theory of Consciousness, Cambridge (UK), Cambridge University Press.
  3. Baldwin D.A., Baird J.A. (2001). Discerning intentions in dynamic human action, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 5, pp. 171-178.
  4. Buckner C. (2011). Two approaches to the distinction between cognition and “mere association”, International Journal of Comparative Psychology, 24(4) , pp. 314-348.
  5. Butterfill S.A., Apperly I.A. (2013). How to construct a minimal theory of mind, Mind and Language, 28(5), pp. 606-637.
  6. Coltheart M. (1999). Modularity and cognition, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 3, pp. 115-120.
  7. Courtney S.M. (2004). Attention and cognitive control as emergent properties of information representation in working memory, Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 4, pp. 501-516.
  8. Dehaene S., Changeux J.P., Naccache L., Sackur, J., Sergent C. (2006). Conscious, preconscious, and subliminal processing: a testable taxonomy, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 10(5), pp. 204-211.
  9. Fuster J. (2001). The prefrontal cortex. An update: Time is of the essence, Neuron, 2, pp. 319-333.
  10. Fuster J. (2003). Cortex and mind. Unifying cognition, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
  11. Heyes C. (2012). Simple minds: a qualified defence of associative learning, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 367, pp. 2695-2703.
  12. Huey E.D., Krueger F., Grafman J. (2006). Representations in the human prefrontal cortex, Current Directions in Psychological Science, 15, pp. 167-171.
  13. Jackendoff R. (2002). Foundations of language. Brain, meaning, grammar, evolution, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
  14. Jackendoff R. (2007). A parallel architecture perspective on language processing, Brain Research, 1146, pp. 2-22.
  15. Jackendoff R., Pinker S. (2005). The nature of the language faculty and its implications for evolution of language (Reply to Fitch, Hauser, & Chomsky), Cognition, 97, pp. 211-225.
  16. Kaufman S.B., De Young C. G., Gray J.R., Brown J., Mackintosh N. (2009). Associative learning predicts intelligence above and beyond working memory and processing speed, Intelligence, 37, pp. 374-382.
  17. Laurence S., Margolis E. (2015). Concept nativism and neural plasticity. In Laurence S., Margolis E. (eds.), The conceptual mind: New directions in the study of concepts, Cambridge (Mass.), MIT Press, pp. 117-148.
  18. Maia T.V., Cleeremans A. (2005). Consciousness: converging insights from connectionist modeling and neuroscience, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9, pp. 397-404.
  19. Marcus G.F. (1998). Rethinking eliminative connectionism, Cognitive Psychology, 37, pp. 243-282.
  20. Mazzone M. (2015). Constructing the context through goals and schemata: top-down processes in comprehension and beyond, Frontiers in Psychology, 6(651), pp. 1-13.
  21. McClelland J.L. (2006). How far can you go with Hebbian learning, and when does it lead you astray? In Munakata Y., Johnson M.H. (eds.), Processes of Change in Brain and Cognitive Development: Attention and Performance XXI, Oxford, Oxford University Press, pp. 33-69.
  22. Miller E.K., Cohen J.D. (2001). An integrative theory of prefrontal cortex function, Annual Review of Neuroscience, 24, pp. 67-202.
  23. Miller E.K., Freedman D.J., Wallis J.D. (2002). The prefrontal cortex: categories, concepts and cognition, Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences, 357, pp. 1123-1136.
  24. Plebe A., Mazzone M. (submitted). Neural plasticity and concepts ontogeny.
  25. Pulvermüller F., Garagnani M., Wennekers T. (2014). Thinking in circuits: toward neurobiological explanation in cognitive neuroscience, Biological Cybernetics, 108, pp. 573-593.
  26. Rakison D.H., Lupyan G. (2008). Developing object concepts in infancy: An associative learning perspective. SRCD Monographs.
  27. Rougier N., Noelle D., Braver T. et al. (2005). Prefrontal cortex and flexible cognitive control: rules without symbols, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 102, pp. 7338-7343.
  28. Schmajuk N., Larrauri J. (2008). Associative models can describe both causal learning and conditioning, Behavioural Processes, 77, pp. 443-445.
  29. Scarf D., Imuta K., Colombo M., Hayne H. (2012). Social evaluation or simple association? Simple associations may explain moral reasoning in infants, PLoS One, 7(8) , p. e42698.
  30. Shanks D.R. (2010). Learning: From association to cognition, Annual Review of Psychology, 61, pp. 273-301.
  31. Smith L.B. (2000). Avoiding Associations when its Behaviorism you Really Hate. In Golinkoff R.M., Hirsh-Pasek K. (eds.), Becoming a word learner, A debate on lexical acquisition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 169-174.
  32. Smolensky P. (1988). On the proper treatment of connectionism, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 11, pp. 1-74.
  33. Sur M., Angelucci A., Sharma J. (1999). Rewiring cortex: The role of patterned activity in development and plasticity of neocortical circuits, Journal of Neurobiology, 41, pp. 33-43.
  34. Sur M., Leamey C.A. (2001). Development and plasticity of cortical areas and networks, Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 2(4) , pp. 251-262.
  35. von Melchner L., Pallas S.L., Sur M. (2000). Visual behaviour mediated by retinal projections directed to the auditory pathway, Nature, 404(6780) , pp. 871-876.
  36. Wood J.N., Grafman J. (2003). Human prefrontal cortex: processing and representational perspectives, Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 4, pp. 139-147.

Marco Mazzone, Trivializing modularity. An associative-representational account of cognition in "EPISTEMOLOGIA" 2/2015, pp 201-215, DOI: 10.3280/EPIS2015-002003