ESSAYS & COMMBflBHjIFI=I
We propose a theory of the general
underlying principles of cognitive sys-
tems, their perception regarding the en-
vironment, and the way in which they
deal with the complex patterns their en-
vironments present. This is essentially
divided into two phases—a phase of
priming (top of Figure 1), in which the
system defines the general properties of
its environment that it knows and a
phase of specific interaction (bottom of
Figure 1), in which the cognitive system
utilizes its knowledge of the general
properties to interact with specific en-
counters with its environment. These
phases are not necessarily chronologi-
cal by nature and happen with each in-
teraction of the cognitive system with
its environment.
Cognitive systems are innately built
with a tendency toward perceiv-
ing certain aspects of the environ-
ment. These tendencies are such that
they cause the cognitive systems to be
receptive toward seeing certain general
properties of the environment and ex-
amples that embody them. However,
the cognitive system will only acquire
general properties that are corroborated
in its initial interactions with the envi-
ronment. The definition of general
properties by cognitive systems is
something that is not completely prede-
termined but rather defined through in-
teraction with the environment; the en-
vironment’s reinforcement is what de-
fines the final set of general properties
that the cognitive system uses to know
its environment. The general properties
are an important aspect of the shape
space,1 and so they are encountered of-
ten in meaningful interactions with the
shape space. Examples of such proper-
ties which are both generic for and
FIGURE 1
∣The Two Phases Enabling Cognitive Perception of Complex Patterns-]
1. The systemic priming phase - Reaching the general properties
I Language ∖
Vision
Immunity
Innate systemic tendency
towards noticing complex
stimuli and changes
Innate systemic tendency
towards proteins
presented by MHC
"Vocabulary Explosion": ∣
Knowledge of vocabulary sets.
the stage for learning of
Tendency
Visual stimulation
builds visual cortex
Thymic presentation builds"
array of receptors with
affinity towards certain
proteins
Corroboration
Achieved set of
Representations
(Useful Examples?
awareness of syntactic
I combinations with small
; vocabulary set
visual patterns (edges,
motion,etc.) get more
attention
general, almost empty
semantically and gene∏c of
the verb sub-categories to
which they belong serve as
basis for learning syntactic
combinations
’ Relevant antigen patterns, ʌ
ubiquitous to cellular life
presented at higher frequency
Vision I
Language ∣
Knowledge of general properties of shape space (see text), corroborated by the
environment, as seen via the colored glasses of the systems tendencies.
1Protein shape space is an analogy com-
monly used to describe a vector space, in
which every point describes a configura-
tion of the protein [4]. We will use this in
a more general way to describe the vector
space of the various cognitive modalities.
© 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Detection of edges or
Detection of similarities to
Useful Examples of syntactic
constructions
ion of T cells
to (specific) Useful
I Detection of antigens
і similar to Useful Examples of
cellular life
ii PerceptionofImage
Application Zlearning of new
ect syntactic
Detection of
general
properties
Association to other
visual objects
Association of context
and correct grammar
FunctionalZSpecific
Communication
Regulation of receptors to
Useful Examples,
proliferation of pathogen
specific cells.
і FunctionaiZSpecific
Immune Reaction
In the above figure we explain our theory on cognitive systems, utilizing for this purpose
examples from vision, language and the immune system. The figure shows the two phases
encompassing cognitive perception.
CO M PLEXITY
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