Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!psuvax1!psuvm!cunyvm!maine.bitnet!brent From: BRENT@MAINE.BITNET (Brent C J Britton) Newsgroups: comp.cog-eng Subject: Re: Murmurs of Earth icons Message-ID: <1765BRENT@MAINE> Date: 27 Aug 89 18:50:29 GMT References: <343@aratar.UUCP> Distribution: comp Organization: University of Maine System Lines: 26 In article <343@aratar.UUCP>, chac@aratar.UUCP (Chuck Clanton) writes: > >On the other side, a "universal" icon might come from species-wide experience, >for example the outline of the breast seen by a baby. Such examples are >very hard to find. The variety of human experience is much greater than >the commonality; many babies are bottle fed. > >(...) But, if I could construct >a simple picture that either activates pre-wired perceptual mechanisms in >the brain or provokes some association with species-wide experience, then >that picture might be a universal icon. How about a smiling face vs. a frowning one? I would suspect these to be universal (among humans) indicators of "good" and "bad", or even "yes" and "no" respectively. Facial expressions are effective communicators, and can impart a whole slug of different concepts (curiousity, anger...). Brent ------- .. Sine here... +-----------------+ . . Brent C.J. Britton | Ehhhhhhhhhem... | Computing and Data Processing Services | my opinions, | . . . University of Maine System | which are mine, | Orono, ME 04469 | are mine. | . . Voice: 207/581-3557 +-----------------+ .. Fax: 207/581-3531