Xref: utzoo sci.lang:2053 sci.psychology:63
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!sunybcs!bingvaxu!vu0112
From: vu0112@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu (Cliff Joslyn)
Newsgroups: sci.lang,sci.psychology
Subject: Re: language, thought, and culture
Message-ID: <953@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu>
Date: 17 Mar 88 01:12:46 GMT
References: <926@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu> <337@thirdi.UUCP> <27095@linus.UUCP>
Reply-To: vu0112@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu (Cliff Joslyn)
Organization: SUNY Binghamton, NY
Lines: 39
Keywords: language thought culture concepts ideas communication

[ Hey, all us 'language thought and culture' folks: wanta take a stroll
over to sci.psychology and let these poor linguists get on with dropping
their pronouns? This cross-post should get the ball rolling; PLEASE
DELETE sci.lang HEREAFTER! ]

In article <27095@linus.UUCP> bwk@mbunix (Kort) writes:
>My experience is that internal self-communication not only exits, it
>forms the essesnce of learning, comprehension, and mastery.

Here here. (Hear hear?) This is 'imagination'.

>Like, Feynman, I note that my brain has multiple "departments".  There is a
>"language department" and a "vision department" and a "sensory-motor
>department" and so on.  

This is also the thesis of the cognitivists, Fodor, Minsky, et. al.

>The left and right hemispheres of the brain can represent the same
>information in different formats.  

Yes, but I wouldn't make too much out of the left-right brain per se. 
That theory's been over-worked.  Differentiation of modalities certainly
occurs, but probably at a much lower neural resolution than the hemisphere.

In my mathematical left-hemispere,
>I can manipulate the equations of a ballistic trajectory.  But if I
>want to catch a softball, I rely on my right hemisphere to direct me
>to the landing spot of the ball.  

Consider the various ways to solve a simple diff.  eq.  w/a machine: an
analytic theorem proving expert system; a numerical algorithm; an analog
computer; a physical model of a conic section. These are all
representations of the same problem in different modalities.  Why
shouldn't the brain do the same?

O---------------------------------------------------------------------->
| Cliff Joslyn, Professional Cybernetician 
| Systems Science Department, SUNY Binghamton, New York, but my opinions
| vu0112@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu
V All the world is biscuit shaped. . .