[From francisco arocha, 96/09/06, 15.27, EST]
[From Bruce Abbott (960906.1255 EST)]
Rick Marken (960906.0800) --
And in a more recent article by Vera & Simon (1993, page 9), we find
the following (Ants as well as people are physical symbol systems,
according to Simon):
"A physical symbol system interacts with its external
environment in two ways: (1) it receives sensory stimuli
from the environment that it converts into symbol
structures in memory; and (2) it acts upon the environment
in ways determined by the symbol structures (motor symbols)
that it produces..."
and later (p. 10),
"Encoding of one or more symbols on the basis of sensory
input may trigger the creation of one or more motor
symbols, with the consequent execution of the designated
action. This sequence would correspond closely to the
classical behaviorist stimulus-response sequence, and also
to the sequence postulated by SA (Situated Action).
and (also p. 10)
"...sequences of actions can be executed with constant
interchange among (a) receipt of information about the
current state of the environment (perception), (b) internal
processing of information (thinking), and (c) response to
the environment (motor activity). These sequences may or
may not be guided by long-term plans (or strategies that
adapt to the feedback of perceptual information).
Vera, A. H. & Simon, H. A. (1993). Situated action: A symbolic
interpretation. Cognitive Science, 17, 7-48.
Maybe Simon is not so simple, but this sure sounds like input/output.
francisco
Jose Francisco Arocha, Ph.D.
1110 Pine Avenue Tel: (514) 398-4985/398-4987
Centre for Medical Education Fax (514) 398-7246
McGill University E-mail: francisco@medcor.mcgill.ca
Montreal, QC H3A 1A3 (alt) e-mail: cybn@musica.mcgill.ca
Canada
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