Simple Simon simple?

[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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