Common Sense, Reasoning, and Rationality by Renee Elio

Author:Renee Elio [Elio, Renee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780195147667

end p.140

I know (that you want [my food cache])

I want (you to believe [that I believe (the food is in location A)])

and so on.

Notice that as the capacity for hierarchical embeddings of mental representations increases, so does the capacity to represent the mental states of others and, concomitantly, so does one's capacity for deception. An organism that is capable of forming second- or third-order embedded mental representations is also capable of engaging in stunning acts of deception—and of forming complex plans that involve deeply embedded goal structures. Dominating (or controlling) such an organism would constitute a daunting feat, as the interaction between Belle and Rock and the anecdote about Supinah amply illustrate.

Does this mean that other higher order mammals are capable of hierarchically embedded mental representation? This is a hotly debated topic in animal cognition (see, e.g., Bekoff 1998; Byrne 1995; Ristau 1998; and Whiten and Byrne 1988). As is apparent from AI work on robotics, the negotiating of the physical environment is not without its challenges. But if that environment is also imbued with agents who move of their own volition and are motivated by invisible internal states and whose behavior must be successfully forecast if one is to secure opportunities to leave progeny, these pressures enormously favor an adaptation for forming embedded mental representations. For this reason, many researchers have concluded that it was the exigencies of the social environment that forged the evolution of the mind (Byrne 1995; Byrne and Whiten 1988; Cheney and Seyfarth 1990; Cummins 1998a, 1998b, 1998c; Tomasello in press).

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.