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Harmony in linguistic cognition.

Paul Smolensky¹

¹Cognitive Science Department, Johns Hopkins University.

Cognitive Science

|June 28, 2011

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

This study explores the integrated connectionist/symbolic (ICS) cognitive architecture, explaining higher cognition through parallel distributed processing (PDP) and symbolic systems. This framework underpins Optimality Theory, a grammatical theory explaining language typology.

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Science
Computational Linguistics
Artificial Intelligence

Background:

Higher cognition requires formal characterization on multiple descriptive levels.
Existing cognitive architectures often struggle to bridge micro-level processing with macro-level symbolic representation.
The need for a unified framework integrating connectionist and symbolic approaches in cognitive modeling.

Purpose of the Study:

To survey the integrated connectionist/symbolic (ICS) cognitive architecture.
To explain how parallel distributed processing (PDP) at the microlevel supports symbolic computation at the macrolevel.
To highlight the role of Harmony optimization in the ICS framework and its connection to Optimality Theory.

Main Methods:

Describing the dual-level characterization of cognition within the ICS architecture.
Explaining the formal properties of the symbolic system derived from its PDP substrate.
Detailing the concept of Harmony as a well-formedness measure optimized by the system.

Main Results:

The ICS architecture formally integrates connectionist (PDP) and symbolic processing.
Symbolic functions in ICS are shown to be emergent properties of PDP systems optimizing Harmony.
Optimality Theory, an outgrowth of ICS, provides a formal, optimization-based theory of cross-linguistic typology.

Conclusions:

Cognitive explanation necessitates the integration of both symbolic and connectionist principles.
The ICS framework offers a robust model for understanding higher cognition and linguistic structure.
Harmony maximization in ICS directly corresponds to minimizing markedness in linguistic structures.