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Concepts, Perception and the Dual Process Theory of Mind
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Concepts, Perception and the Dual
Process Theory of Mind
Marcello Frixione - Antonio Lieto
University of Genoa (Italy) - University of Torino (Italy)
9° International Symposium of Cognition, Logic and Communication
PERCEPTION and CONCEPTS, Riga, 17 May 2013
Outline
• Relation between Concepts and Perception
• Analysis of the notion of «Concept»
• Different axes explaining the – heterogeneous - nature of this
notion
• Introduction of a new axis based on the Dual Process Theory
• Conclusions
2
Marcello Frixione and Antonio Lieto - 9th International Symposium of Cognition, Logic
and Communication, 16-18 May 2013. Riga, Latvia
Concepts and Perception
The problem of the relations between concepts and perception is
blurred by the fact that the notion of concept itself is rather confused.
i.e.: It is not easy to say whether and in which measure concept possession
involves entertaining and manipulating perceptual representations,
whether concepts are entirely different from perceptual representations
or not, and so on…
(e.g. distinction conceptual/non conceptual content as a paradigmatic
example of such a confusion: the same phenomena can be categorized
as conceptual by some psychologist and non conceptual by some
philosophers). => unshared notion of concept.
3
Marcello Frixione and Antonio Lieto - 9th International Symposium of Cognition, Logic
and Communication, 16-18 May 2013. Riga, Latvia
Analyzing the notion of «concept»
Different axes through which to consider the nature of concepts:
• Prototypes/Exemplars/Theories
• Compositionality vs Typicality Effects
• Our proposal: System1 vs System2 conceptual competences
4
Marcello Frixione and Antonio Lieto - 9th International Symposium of Cognition, Logic
and Communication, 16-18 May 2013. Riga, Latvia
First Axis: Concept Theories in Cognitive Science
Classical Concept Theory
Prototype Theory
Exemplar Theory
Theory Theory
5
This axis was individuated by
the works of Murphy (2002)
and Machery (2009)
All these approaches aim to
account for typicality effects
Marcello Frixione and Antonio Lieto - 9th International Symposium of Cognition, Logic
and Communication, 16-18 May 2013. Riga, Latvia
Typicality Effects
6
(Rosh E., 1975)
Category membership is not based on
necessary and sufficient conditions but on
typicality traits.
There are members of a category that are
more typical and cognitively relevant w.r.t.
others.
Ex: BIRD, {Robin, Toucan, Penguin…}
Studies preceded by the Wittgenstein
work (1953) and by the concept of «family
of resemblance»
Marcello Frixione and Antonio Lieto - 9th International Symposium of Cognition, Logic
and Communication, 16-18 May 2013. Riga, Latvia
Typicality Theories
7
The different proposals that have been advanced can be grouped in three main classes: a) fuzzy approaches, b) probabilistic and Bayesan approaches, c) approaches based
on non-monotonic formalisms.
Prototype theory: concept as prototype (an approximate, statistically
relevant, representation of a category). A “central” representation
of a category.
Exemplar theory: the mental representation of a concept is the set of
the representations of (some of) the exemplars of that category that
we encountered during our lifetime.
Theory theory: concepts are analogous to theoretical terms in a
scientific theory. For example, the concept CAT is individuated by
the role it plays in our mental theory of zoology. In other version of
the approach, concepts themselves are identified with micro-
theories of some sort.
Marcello Frixione and Antonio Lieto - 9th International Symposium of Cognition, Logic
and Communication, 16-18 May 2013. Riga, Latvia
Multiple «conceptual» representations
8
The different proposals that have been advanced can be grouped in three main classes: a) fuzzy approaches, b) probabilistic and Bayesan approaches, c) approaches based
on non-monotonic formalisms.
These representations are not mutually exclusive.
Different studies (ex. Malt, 1989; Smith et al. 97-98) show that
people use different conceptual representations for dealing
with different type of typicality based processes.
This aspect represents a first symptom suggesting that concepts
have an heterogeneous nature.
Machery: “concepts are not a natural kinds” => 3 natural kinds.
Marcello Frixione and Antonio Lieto - 9th International Symposium of Cognition, Logic
and Communication, 16-18 May 2013. Riga, Latvia
A Further Axis: «conceptual requirements»
Compositionality vs Prototypical representations
9
Frege’s Principle “The meaning of a complex symbol s
functionally depends on the syntactic structure of s and from
the meaning of primitive symbols in it.”
Marcello Frixione and Antonio Lieto - 9th International Symposium of Cognition, Logic
and Communication, 16-18 May 2013. Riga, Latvia
Prototypes and Compositionality
10
Prototypes are not compositional (Osherson and Smith, 1981;
Fodor 1981).
Ex. PET FISH = PET ⋃ FISH
The prototype or “PET FISH” is not the result of the composition
of the prototypes of PET (e.g. furry, warm…) ⋃ FISH
(greyish).
Marcello Frixione and Antonio Lieto - 9th International Symposium of Cognition, Logic
and Communication, 16-18 May 2013. Riga, Latvia
A New Axis: Dual Process Theories
11
We propose to consider a further axis in order to classify
conceptual abilities.
It is inspired by the “Dual Process Theories” born in the field of
the psychology of reasoning and rationality (Stanovitch and West,
2000; Evans and Frankish, 2008; Kahnemann 2011).
According to the dual process theories two different types of
cognitive processes and systems exist which have been called
respectively system 1 and system 2.
Marcello Frixione and Antonio Lieto - 9th International Symposium of Cognition, Logic
and Communication, 16-18 May 2013. Riga, Latvia
System 1/System 2 features
System 1 (Implicit) System 2 (Explicit)
Unconscius Conscious
Automatic Controllable
Evolved early Evolved late
Indipendent from Language Related to Languaged
Parallel, Fast Sequential, Slow
Pragmatic/contextualized Logical/Abstract
Marcello Frixione and Antonio Lieto - 9th International Symposium of Cognition, Logic
and Communication, 16-18 May 2013. Riga, Latvia
Dual Process Theories and Reasoning
13
The dual process approach was originally proposed to account
for systematic errors in reasoning tasks: systematic reasoning
errors should be ascribed to fast, associative and automatic
system 1 processes, while system 2 is responsible for the slow
and cognitively demanding tasks and logical activity.
Ex. Conjunction fallacy (Tversky and Kahnemann, 1983).
In our opinion, the distinction between system 1 and system 2
processes could be plausibly applied also to the problem of
conceptual representations.
Marcello Frixione and Antonio Lieto - 9th International Symposium of Cognition, Logic
and Communication, 16-18 May 2013. Riga, Latvia
Dual Theories and Conceptual Representations
14
There are some crucial conceptual abilities that can be seen in
terms of system 1/ system 2 distinction.
For example:
Marcello Frixione and Antonio Lieto - 9th International Symposium of Cognition, Logic
and Communication, 16-18 May 2013. Riga, Latvia
System 1 System 2
Most Non Monotonic Categorization (Use of Prototypical Knowledge)
Monotonic Categorization (based on slow, sequential, deliberative processes)
Ex. Monotonic Categorization
15
???
??? 19
Marcello Frixione and Antonio Lieto - 9th International Symposium of Cognition, Logic
and Communication, 16-18 May 2013. Riga, Latvia
Ex. Monotonic Categorization
16
EXAGON
PRIME
NUMBER
19
Marcello Frixione and Antonio Lieto - 9th International Symposium of Cognition, Logic
and Communication, 16-18 May 2013. Riga, Latvia
Ex. Non Monotonic Categorization
X {hasFur, WagTail, Woof}
???
17
Marcello Frixione and Antonio Lieto - 9th International Symposium of Cognition, Logic
and Communication, 16-18 May 2013. Riga, Latvia
Ex. Non Monotonic Categorization
An element X is categorized as a DOG because:
X {hasFur, WagTail, Woof}
No one of these traits is definitory of DOG
18
Marcello Frixione and Antonio Lieto - 9th International Symposium of Cognition, Logic
and Communication, 16-18 May 2013. Riga, Latvia
Dual Theories and Conceptual Reasoning
19
If we consider the conjunction fallacy problem from the point of
view of a theory of concepts, it can be interpreted as an example
of the strong tendency of human subjects to resort to prototypical
information in categorization (Non Monotonic Categorization)
als
Ex. Conjunction fallacy (Tversky and Kahnemann, 1983).
A version of the Linda example:
- Pippo weights 200 Kg
- Pippo is 2 metres tall
- Pippo growls and roars
- Pippo has robust teeths
Marcello Frixione and Antonio Lieto - 9th International Symposium of Cognition, Logic
and Communication, 16-18 May 2013. Riga, Latvia
Pippo is a mammal
Pippo is a mammal and he
is wild and dangerous
Non complete overlapping among these
axes
20
These three axes probably do not coincide.
Marcello Frixione and Antonio Lieto - 9th International Symposium of Cognition, Logic
and Communication, 16-18 May 2013. Riga, Latvia
Axis 1 Axis 2 Axis 3
Classical Concepts
Compositionality System 2
Prototypes Typicality Effects System 1
Exemplars Typicality Effects
System 1
Concept as Theory Typicality Effects, Compositionality ???
System 1 and System 2
Concepts/Perception and Dual Process Theory
21
In our opinion it is plausible that, in light of the distinction
between type 1 vs. type 2 systems, certain aspects of conceptual
knowledge pertain type 1 systems, while others pertain type 2.
Perception (or, at least, the so-called low-level perception) is
presumably "closer" to type 1 processes, and more remote from
type 2 ones.
Therefore, those aspects of concepts (if any) that are related to
perception presumably pertain type 1 processes.
Marcello Frixione and Antonio Lieto - 9th International Symposium of Cognition, Logic
and Communication, 16-18 May 2013. Riga, Latvia
Dual Theories and Concepts
The system 1/system2 distinction could also be useful to clarify the differences between philosophers and cognitive psychologist on the notion of «concept».
Philosophers tend to privilege system 2 aspects of this notion.
For the Psychologist, on the other hand, the system 1 aspects have to be considered as conceptual.
Marcello Frixione and Antonio Lieto - 9th International Symposium of Cognition, Logic
and Communication, 16-18 May 2013. Riga, Latvia
Conclusions
23
We propose to support the hypothesis of the heterogeneous
nature of concepts resorting to the dual process theory of mind.
In our opinion, this axis can be fruitful in order to consider the
relations between concepts and perception.
In this sense, we believe that the problem of the relationships
between concepts and perception is in some sense ill-posed; a
satisfactory solution should presuppose a better understanding
of the notion of concept.
Marcello Frixione and Antonio Lieto - 9th International Symposium of Cognition, Logic
and Communication, 16-18 May 2013. Riga, Latvia
Concepts, Perception and the Dual
Process Theory of Mind
Thank you for your attention
Questions/Comments…
Antonio Lieto
University of Torino (Italy)