Theories on Cognitive Process - Essay Example

In verbal communication, it is not enough to refer to actual words or phrases to decode the meaning of the speaker. There may be some nuances or shades of meaning to any particular word or phrase depending on the intention of the speaker, and likewise, the recipient of the communication. As such, the combination of any two statements spoken in succession or randomly may or may not have a relationship, and such a relationship may only be inferred. Philosopher Paul Grice introduced this concept of implicature, in which the relationship of two statements is implied but not required.

Hearers routinely work under a set of assumptions in their interpretation of verbal communication, and this is where the problem of pragmatics surface. While these assumptions may be accurate, ambiguities and nuances in meaning may give lie to a presumed fact and while such ambivalence may not be immediately apparent, failure to allow for such circumstances may lead to a misinterpretation of the speaker's intention, leading to a breakdown in communications. Pragmatic interpretation is considered by from this argument many as a non-demonstrative inference process, in which there is no certainty of the correctness of the hearer's interpretation.

Pragmatism in communication may make use of inference to det. There are several views by which pragmatic interpretation is viewed, one of which is where it is considered completely metapsychological. In this view, the Fodorian central processes or "theory of mind" is applied in which mind-reading is involved. The authors propose that a metacommunicative module may be developed from the application of the Fodorian central system in which ambiguities of verbal communication may be resolved.Grice believed that comprehension is attained through a calculation or "working-out schema" which upon reflection may seem to be rather tedious with the use of long chains of inferences, and not convincingly a person normally would pursue comprehension.

It also underestimates the metapsychological aspect of comprehension. The current trend in cognitive studies is to view the mind is modular, and Grice concurs that this implementation of his approach may be a way to work out the presence of a conversational implicature intuitively. This modular view of the mind is based on the tendency in evolution to select systems that promote efficiency, and that many of these systems are genetically subscribed. In mind-reading, it is assumed that it is not a general purpose reasoning mechanism, but a dedicated module that "exploits the regularities in intentional behaviour" although it is uncertain how this mechanism works.

There are many theories, such as the rationalization account which uses a form of belief-desire reasoning, the simulation account where intentions are attributed through acting out the action for interpretation, the Gricean account of implicaturs and relevance-theoretic accounts. It is suggested that within the