Conceptual Structures and Conceptual Perception - Annotated Bibliography Example

Computer sciences and Information technology Part CONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS Source: (Sowa, John. Conceptual structures. 1984) John Sowa was an American computer scientist who invented the conceptual graphs. He put many efforts analyzing artificial intelligence linking them to natural languages. He published his book ‘conceptual structures’ in the early 1984. The book revolved around information processing in mind and machine (John, 1984). He ventured in showing graphical diagrams build out of the logic building blocks of conceptual structures. Along this line of analysis, he began formal conceptual analysis. This analyzed concepts in any cognitive science especially the aspect of analysis and representation of concepts and their expression in language and logic. Conceptual analysis refers as an essential element of metaphysics. Concepts are mental representations and entities that exist in the brain (John, 1984). Sowa explains that concepts can also mean abilities peculiar to cognitive agents. He also says that they can be abstract objects where these objects are constituents of propositions that mediate between thought, language, and referents. According to Sowa’s physical theory of mind, these concepts are mental representations used, by the brain, to denote a category of items in the world. They allow human beings to draw suitable inferences about the entities they encounter in everyday lives (John, 1984). Conceptual analysis has become a human cognitive activity. In many instances, concepts hide behind words. As demonstrated in Sowa’s work, conceptual analysis is an important tool in countering cognitive processes such as categorization, memory, decision-making, learning, and inferences. With reference to Sowa’s works, the important concepts to me are a collection of beliefs about nature, unique qualities, and typical behavior (John, 1984). They represent the mental picture about me. Self attributes and personality traits are what differentiate individuals from one another. The concepts behind words represent what we think of ourselves and what exactly transpires in our mental analysis of our character traits. It enables us instead of wondering afresh on new situations, we categorize knowledge. With reference to Sowa’s work, (John, 1984) the three concepts analyzed are concepts of freedom, moral responsibility, and ability. Free will, moral responsibility, and ability Everybody alive tends to make use of valid reasoning. However, the reasoning projected contrasts many logicians’ works. Free-will reasoning performed by most people involves information obtained through many types of representation. In a separate view, formal free will logic primarily concerns with valid reasoning based on information in a single form only (John, 1984). For instance, one day I wanted to cross the road, though I did not associate the mental picture that came to my mind with conceptual analysis, I found myself picturing several items. There was a car approaching, so I stood at the edge of the road. My mind, at this time, had pictured that the car may have been close enough: so if I had crossed, it may have run over me. Other information such as color, or number of doors did not occur as a priority. Freewill is a strong concept that supports categorization of information in the mind for safer decisions to be obtained (John, 1984). In the context of free will, a person has the mandate to choose his or her course of action. Free will is an important aspect that comes in handy with moral responsibility and human ability. In all these aspects of conceptual analysis, there are concepts ‘behind’ the words. One of the ways that Sowa use in identifying the concepts behind various words speaking boldly of what all people know, but rarely manage to say it all. He says that what can be termed as natural is dependent on the topic (John, 1984). Conceptual perception involves using all means to create perception using any available formula. For instance, images could arise from either sensory stimulation of the free will at mind such that a derived meaning can be perceived and understood. In light of it, internally generated images serve the same purposes with concepts placed behind a word. Consciousness is the greatest tool in mapping concrete concepts with perceived perception. Consciousness is a tool used to unravel the hidden concepts behind a free will judgment over a situation. Moral responsibility facilitates an enhancement tool in gauging proper free will and ability (John, 1984). Within all the works done by Sowa, he uses many concepts to enhance meaning and understanding of situations, and calculations. For instance, he uses conceptual graphs in essence of concept and related models specifically citing that every arc in every relation gets linked to a concept in determination. Moral responsibility and mental ability enable us to use conceptual abilities to analyze the situations that surround us (John, 1984). In my latest case, I was strolling within the city center near a public parking. In the parking, there were several types of cars, big and small. The concept underlying here is that I was so sure about the identity of those objects. Without even struggling, I automatically knew they were cars. I did not go into specified categorization but rather general categorization. The moral responsibility to nature dictates that when defining objects, the ability to define them underlie within the ability to generalize their characteristics. The reason is that when defining with specificity, the definitions may be faulty. For instance, not all the cars in the parking lot had four wheels or four doors but, the category of information in my mind defined them as cars. Reference list John, F. S. (1984) Conceptual Structures: Information Processing in Mind and Machine. Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-201-14472-7 Part 2: Pictures—and a thousand words (Hall) Source: Hall, Sean. This means this and this means that: a users guide to semiotics,2nd edition. (2012). Human life relies on beliefs and impact of beliefs on concepts brought forward by images. Sean hall elaborates further in his book ‘This Means This and This Mean That’ where he expounds on semiotics. The book is geared towards opening the minds of people to the in-depth meaning carried by graphic representation (Hall, 2012). He argues that semiotics subsumes textual, graphical, and interactive communication methods. He engages in using flowcharts, drawings, and directory trees as part of his diagrammatic language. Diagrams are used to show internal meaning rather than telling what the writer means (Hall, 2012). Hall used his literature to refer to the notion that simple images can represent very complex ideas. The human mind is characterized by visualization abilities that enable him or her possibly to absorb large amounts of data quickly. The origin of the philosophy was facilitated by advertisement (Hall, 2012). One look at a diagram and a person would understand what a thousand words would have described. Hall made the concept of representation occupy a new and important place in studying most cultures. Representation is an efficient tool in connecting meaning to what is being represented in actual sense. He further gave meaning to things through language. Through this, one makes sense of the world of people, objects and events (Hall, 2012). The first example he uses is images. He presents an image to the reader, and he asks the reader a question for the reader to gurgle over the answers on the image. He relatively goes ahead to discuss the answers that he thinks may suit the image to open more room for the reader to think critically and analyze (Hall, 2012). For example, he uses an example of a glass door with an outward protruding handle marked “push”. He then poses a question beside the door asking how the door is opened i.e. ‘how is the door opened?’ (Hall, 2012). In an imagery representation, the door handle is made in such a way that implicates that it is supposed to be pulled and most people will resort into pulling the door while trying to open it. However, there are clear instructions that the door is supposed to be pushed. The image showing how to open the door confuses and in other instances contradicts the written instruction (Hall, 2012). This means that images and pictures require a specified manner of observation and critical analysis for interpretation. He suggests that the right solution to the problem is the installation of a flat plate that enables the push function. In this way, communication is purely enhanced by the handle. He uses the handle to serve the purpose and meaning in a semiotic manner (Hall, 2012). The second example involves two sticks with irregular notches, curves, and indentations carved into them. In his image representation, the sticks are maps created by the Inuit. They are held under their mittens feeling their finger contours so that a pattern coastline is formed. Just like the door, the Inuit maps are physical representations in image form to embody their meaning. He goes a mile further to explore on how images and pictures are used in semiotic manner for advertising, media, and art. He says that images and pictures carry very strong and deep semiotic meaning (Hall, 2012). A picture is worth a thousand words meaning that it can generate numerous ideas and outlay them within one single diagram. They tend to carry a seemingly more real and tangible depictions of concepts that in other dimensions, seem nonrepresentational and indescribable (Hall, 2012). The conceptual photography lingers in bringing meaningful message to the viewers. The viewers are only left to interpretation task. Pictures can be as specific as possible and as complicated too. If one does not take good judgment in analyzing the meaning being represented, pictures and images may bring out a completely wrong message. One is supposed to look at the in-depth meaning rather than the shallow meaning (Hall, 2012). Reference list Hall, S. (2012) This means this and this means that: a users guide to semiotics, 2ND edition. Principles of semiotic analysis, Toronto: UTP. Part 3: EXPERIMENTALISM AND MENTAL MODELS Source: Senge, Peter M. The fifth discipline: the art and practice of the learning organization, revised edition. (2006) Senge conceptualizes the learning environment by defining the importance of mental models. In order to create a learning environment, a person is eligible to the creation of mental models that will be effective in generating a learning atmosphere (Senge, 2006). Senge defines mental models as conceptual frameworks made of generalizations and assumptions. This facilitates a better understanding of the world hence, creating the basis for action. He suggests that system thinking is a cognitive human activity (Senge, 2006). In my view, mental models are psychological representations of real or imaginary situations that can happen to a person (Senge, 2006). It involves examining the state of things in the back of our minds, forming mental diagrams of the situations, perceiving on what the diagrams represent, and concluding their importance and truth. Many mental models are unconscious and unspoken assumptions. It is important to surface and scrutinize them in order to see the world clearly (Senge, 2006). Mental models represent psychological representations of real, hypothetical, or imaginary situations in life. They are represented by reasoning where it involves a process by which a person makes observations of the state of things in a surrounding, and forms a diagram of the state of those things. The next step will be the perception of the parts of the diagram presentation relations not explicitly represented in the surrounding (Senge, 2006). The mind satisfies itself that the mental experiments in the diagram relations will subsist, or at least would so in a certain manner to represent the truth. The mind has capabilities of constructing small-scale models of reality used to anticipate events, to reason, and to underlie explanation. Every human being has a different version of mental models. For instance, we have different mental models of what ‘a nice holiday’ would be, what would happen if I turned on a thermostat on a heater, and many other questions (Senge, 2006). My first model involves what I have often heard people say. In most occasions, people will say that carbohydrates are very healthy for human consumptions. In other occasions, I hear people saying that carbohydrates are very unhealthy for consumption. Those two statements quite mix me up. I have heard people arguing their answers demonstrating scientific evidences of their arguments. I once decided to carry out a research to establish the truth so that it could guide me on what to perceive. I just did not understand how they could be unhealthy, yet we need them to grow. After intensive research, I discovered toxicity is determined by the amount of the substances a person takes. It made me conclude that healthiness is a vague term that in most occasions depends on the context of what is on discussion. It is imperative to note that when humans weigh up other people’s beliefs and models, they carry out critical assessment, but on their own, they act without thinking even twice. In another model, we were out arguing with a friend about the ownership of a certain restaurant in town. In my mind, I would hear something telling me I was right, and my friend was wrong. It is a model that many people feel but in most scenarios they do not express the model aloud. Due to what I felt, it gave me enough grounds to continue arguing and placing my facts in order to prove my point. In other instances, I felt like if I stated what I felt and believed I will sound stupid, so in such cases I did not state what I felt. Instead I acted by extending my argument, and there is not even a chance that I felt my friend felt the same way. Sometimes I would feel if I stated what I felt I would sound stupid because I knew my model was wrong. I only continue to act that way. Here is another mental model that I have experienced. I had a friend, an immigrant to my country, when she was at the age of 4 years old. She stayed in the country until she attained the age of twenty-five years. She internalized our own system of teachings and culture. She learned all about the discovery of our country, how it came to existence, and the initial inhabitants. In a wider view, all children in my country learned that history. In a way, it conditioned our mental model about our country. The history does not mention the bad history about our country. In this way, my friend did not have a chance to identify her own culture. I always ask myself where her origin may have been especially after learning about the history of immigrants in our country, and all their bad history. One thing though, I see my friend just as any other member of my country. Mental models are made up of several characteristics. The first characteristic states that mental models are inclusive of what a person thinks are the truth. The second characteristic is that they allow a person make predictions of his or her actions (Senge, 2006). The third characteristic states that mental models are often simple compared to the things they signify. They are only made up of enough information that allows accurate forecast. When documenting mental models, current images, and vocabulary, assumptions should make up a documentation forum (Senge, 2006). The above ways will make it possible to create a target mental model that we want other people to have. There are several ways to represent mental models such as images, scripts, sets of related mental models, controlled vocabulary, and sets of assumptions (Senge, 2006). Reference list Senge, P. M. (Eds.). (2006) The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook - Strategies and Tools for Building a Learning Organization, London, Nicolas Brealey Publishing. (Senge, 2006) Read More