Gert Rickheit

1 Mental Models: Some answers, some questions, some suggestions

Publisher Summary This chapter reviews the mental model construct in cognitive science. The chapter discusses the definitions and aspects of mental models. To demonstrate the usefulness of the mental conceptualization, the chapter presents applications in the domain of discourse comprehension and production. Mental models play a central and unifying role in representing objects, states of affairs, sequences of events, the way the world is, and the social and psychological activities of daily life. The major problem of the mental model approach lies in the fact that the external world is to be represented in a highly specific way. Representing indeterminacy in terms of mental models, thus, poses difficulties, casting some doubt on the contention that mental models can do without variables. The major advantage of the mental model approach lies in the fact that the influence of individual knowledge can be handled with relative ease. Mental models provide a straightforward explanation of several phenomena that are difficult to explain by more traditional accounts.

Collaborative research centre “situated artificial communicators” at the University of Bielefeld, Germany

The Collaborative Research Centre “Situated Artificial Communicators” (SFB 360) is employed in modelling that which a person performs when, with a partner, he cooperatively solves a simple assembly task in a certain situation. Acoustic perception of the spoken word, visual perception of the partner and the objects and processes involved in the situation, understanding of that perceived, the formulation of own utterances, e.g. instructions to the partner, and the planning and performance of actions belong to these intelligence abilities. The theme of the Collaborative Research Centre SFB 360, in which Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence are closely entwined, is unique in this form. The scientific headquarters at the University of Bielefeld, in North Rhine Westphalia, Germany, has succeeded in entering a field of research which, in the trend of the growing importance of intelligent information systems, is a decisive factor for technical innovation.

Handbook of communication competence

HAL 1 -Handbook of Individual Communication Competence Table of Contents I. FOUNDATIONS 1. The Concept of Communicative Competence Gert Rickheit/ Hans Strohner Constanze Vorwerg II. ACQUISITION 2. Language and Neurophysiological Development Ralph-Axel Mueller, Erica Palmer 3. Cognitive Foundations Katharina J. Rohlfing 4. First Utterances Holly L. Storkel 5. Discourse Acquisition Clair Pond, Michael Siegal 6. Literacy Acquisition and Its Precursors Pekka Niemi 7. Sign Language Acquisition Vivian Raithel III. ADULT COMPETENCE 8. Speaking and Listening Thomas Holtgraves 9. Writing and Reading Elke Prestin 10. Nonverbal Communication Competence Nancy M. Puccinelli 11. Media Competence Daniel Perrin, Maureen Ehrensberger IV. COMPETENCE TRAINING 12. Communication Training Annette Lepschy 13. Coping with the Needs of Presentation Mike Allen, Nancy Burrell, John Bourhis 14. Training of Writing and Reading Eva-Maria Jakobs, Daniel Perrin V. LANGUAGE THERAPY 15. Developmental dyslexia: A Developmental Neurolinguistic Approach Virginia W. Berninger, William Nagy, Todd Richards, Wendy Raskind 16. Language disorders Martina Hielscher-Fastabend 17. The Nature and Treatment of Stuttering Ashley Craig.

The Concept of Inference in Discourse Comprehension

Abstract In this chapter a short introduction to the subject of inference in discourse comprehension is given. It is a common view in linguistics and philosophy that forming inferences is an important part of communication. The special role of inferences in the various communicative processes, however, can be understood only in the light of experimental and simulation studies. This chapter, therefore, gives an review of inference research from the experimental viewpoint. In the first part of the chapter some conceptual problems of inference are discussed. The central problem discussed here is the distinction of the concepts of inference and of comprehension. Since comprehension is not possible without inferences both notions are sometimes used as interchangeable terms. In order to avoid this we delimit inferences to the semantic part of the comprehension process: An inference is the generation of new semantic information from old semantic information. In contrast, the concept of decoding refers to the generation of semantic information from non - semantic information. Furthermore, the concept of encoding entails the generation of non - semantic information from semantic information. For all three cases examples and borderline cases are presented. The second part of the chapter considers some theoretical aspects of inference in discourse comprehension. First, the representational aspect describes which types of semantic information are relevant for inference making. Several representational levels are distinguished and some interactions of inferences with these levels are discussed. Secondly, the functions of working memory for the processes of drawing inferences are analysed with respect to the procedural aspect. The central question here is the point of time at which the inference process starts, i. e. the question of forward vs. backward inferences. Whereas backward inferences seem to be the usual type of inference, forward inferences may be restricted to special comprehension strategies. Other special processes in discourse comprehension are the strategies for solving comprehension problems. Thirdly, inferences have a contextual component which includes cultural, situational, and personal factors. Inferences will, therefore, depend on all of these factors. The third part of the chapter discusses some classifications of inferences. According to our definition of inference, three aspects are crucial for the classification. The first aspect is the input of the inference process, i. e. the knowledge which exists already before the inference is drawn. The second aspect is the output of the inference process: The resulting mental representation of the text may be categorized according to the levels of semantic representation. The third aspect is the direction of the process between input and output: This may be vertical between different levels of the representation or horizontal at the same level. In the fourth part of the chapter methodological problems of experimental inference research are discussed. Here we argue for a multi - perspective approach in order to get converging evidence about the hypothetical constructs which are necessary for a theory of inference. In the fifth and final part of the chapter some perspectives for future research into inferences in discourse comprehension are presented. On the one hand, it seems necessary in the coming years to take a more functionally oriented view in order to explain the flexibility of the processes of inferring. On the other hand, the interdisciplinary framework of the developing Cognitive Science promises to provide a good theoretical and methodological support for psycholinguistic inference research.

Typicality Effects in the Categorization of Spatial Relations

The chapter provides an overview of linguistic, neuropsychological and experimental psychological approaches and findings that support the idea that spatial relation categories are analog, overlapping, internally structured categories based on prototype comparison and with fuzzy boundaries. The main focus is on viewpoint dependent relations (direction relations) in visuospatial cognition. The notion of a frame of reference in spatial cognition is related to the more general concept of a frame of reference in categorization. Categorization constitutes the bridge between spatial vision and spatial language. For visual space, a spatial framework is proposed that is based on perceptually salient directions which act as standard values in relation to which object relations can be judged.

Perspektiven der Kognitiven Linguistik

Die zentrale Aufgabe der Kognitiven Linguistik besteht darin, die interne kognitive Struktur und Dynamik eines Sprecher-Horers zu beschreiben und zu erklaren. Dieser Sprecher-Horer wird im wesentlichen als ein informationsverarbeitendes System betrachtet, d.h. als ein System, in dem eine finite Anzahl von eigenstandigen Komponenten (Modulen) sprachliche Informationen auf verschiedenen Ebenen verarbeitet und aufeinander abbildet. Dementsprechend zielt die Kognitive Linguistik darauf ab, ein Modell dieses Systems zu erarbeiten und seine wichtigsten Prinzipien zu spezifizieren. Auf diesem Weg sollen Einsichten daruber gewonnen werden, wie die Sprachfahigkeit des Menschen und die spezifische Struktur seines Kognitionssystems zusammenhangen. Ausgehend von diesem Ansatz liegt das unmittelbare Forschungsziel der Kognitiven Linguistik darin, die einzelnen Systemkomponenten theoretisch und empirisch zu explizieren sowie die Modalitaten ihres Zusammenspiels zu beschreiben und zu erklaren.

Influences of Modality, Text Difficulty, and Processing Control on Inferences in Text Processing

The general aim of the present study was to investigate the influence of oral and written discourse media on various types of inferences in text processing. The special aim of the first experiment was to investigate the contribution of the processing control factor to the repeatedly observed modality effect in text processing. In order to reduce processing control in reading we included a reading condition with word – for – word presentation on the screen of a microcomputer. In the first experiment an expository text was presented orally, typewritten on two pages and word – for – word on a display screen. There were no similarities in the recall patterns for word – for – word reading and listening, but the two reading conditions resulted in almost identical scores for most dependent variables. We conclude from these results that the higher processing control in reading than in listening does not essentially contribute to the modality effect. Another result of the first experiment was the significant effect for elaborative inferences, but not for inferences which combine two different parts of the text. On recalling the easy text subjects made more elaborative inferences after listening than after reading. On recalling the difficult text subjects made more elaborative inferences after reading than after listening. In a second experiment we examined the hypothesis that readers make a greater effort to overcome problems of coherence than listeners. Subjects read or listened to pairs of sentences which differed in the ease of establishing coherence. There was no different modality effect on comprehension times in reading and listening, although comprehension times differed considerably in accordance with the experimental hypothesis.

10 Cognitive modelling of vision and speech understanding

Abstract With this contribution to the discussion about mental models we present a cognitive model for the understanding of speech and vision sensor data. The main point of this article is to explain the interaction between visual perception and language. The integration of language and vision is based on a theory of mental models in terms of which the integrative and coherent representation of objects, situations and events is crucial. The process of understanding does not only take place between adjacent processing levels, but interaction between visual components and language components on various processing levels is also important. Both aspects are crucial for cognitive modelling: The process of integrating sensor data into mental representations and the integration of various modalities. As far as the experimental-simulative method in the area of cognitive science is concerned we are working on a simulation system. The basis of this system is a semantic network formalism which enables us to produce a uniform representation of different types of knowledge and a direct connection of a mental representation with sensor near levels. This system is being developed within the framework of a long term project called Collaborative Research Centre “Situated Artificial Communicators” (SFB 360) at Bielefeld University, Germany. 1

Dynamische Konzeptverarbeitung mit imaginalen und assoziativen Strukturen

SummaryThis article presents the cooperation between an informatics and a psycholinguistic approach for modeling dynamic concept processing. As a new approach to object classification, imaginal prototypes are included in the categorical representation of the informatics framework. Objects are classified in a robust and flexible manner by gradually refined geometric shape descriptions. The psycholinguistic approach details a process model which uses the dynamics of recurrent connectionist networks to deduce and test hypotheses of temporal flow within conceptualization processes. Separation of the network into imaginal and associative subnetworks proves empirically adequate. Integration of the informatics and psycholinguistic frameworks offers a hybrid approach of dynamic concept processing.ZusammenfassungDiese Arbeit stellt die Kooperation eines informatischen und eines psycholinguistischen Ansatzes bei der Modellierung dynamischer Konzeptverarbeitung vor. Im informatischen Teil werden zum Zweck formbasierter Objektklassifikation imaginale Prototypen in die kategoriale Repräsentation einbezogen. Objekte werden durch sukzessive Verfeinerung geometrischer Formmodelle flexibel und robust klassifiziert. Im psycholinguistischen Ansatz wird ein Prozeßmodell entwickelt, das die Dynamik rekurrenter konnektionistischer Netze nutzt, um Hypothesen zu zeitlichen Verläufen von Konzeptualisierungsprozessen abzuleiten und sie experimentell zu prüfen. Dabei erweist sich eine Trennung in imaginale und assoziative Subnetze als empirisch adäquat. Die Verbindung zwischen den beiden Ansätzen zielt auf einen hybriden Ansatz der Modellierung dynamischer Konzeptverarbeitung ab.

Dynamic concept processing with imaginal and associative structures

SummaryThis article presents the cooperation between an informatics and a psycholinguistic approach for modeling dynamic concept processing. As a new approach to object classification, imaginal prototypes are included in the categorical representation of the informatics framework. Objects are classified in a robust and flexible manner by gradually refined geometric shape descriptions. The psycholinguistic approach details a process model which uses the dynamics of recurrent connectionist networks to deduce and test hypotheses of temporal flow within conceptualization processes. Separation of the network into imaginal and associative subnetworks proves empirically adequate. Integration of the informatics and psycholinguistic frameworks offers a hybrid approach of dynamic concept processing.ZusammenfassungDiese Arbeit stellt die Kooperation eines informatischen und eines psycholinguistischen Ansatzes bei der Modellierung dynamischer Konzeptverarbeitung vor. Im informatischen Teil werden zum Zweck formbasierter Objektklassifikation imaginale Prototypen in die kategoriale Repräsentation einbezogen. Objekte werden durch sukzessive Verfeinerung geometrischer Formmodelle flexibel und robust klassifiziert. Im psycholinguistischen Ansatz wird ein Prozeßmodell entwickelt, das die Dynamik rekurrenter konnektionistischer Netze nutzt, um Hypothesen zu zeitlichen Verläufen von Konzeptualisierungsprozessen abzuleiten und sie experimentell zu prüfen. Dabei erweist sich eine Trennung in imaginale und assoziative Subnetze als empirisch adäquat. Die Verbindung zwischen den beiden Ansätzen zielt auf einen hybriden Ansatz der Modellierung dynamischer Konzeptverarbeitung ab.