Frank van der Velde - Combining grounding and productivity in cognitive architectures

Grounding refers to the fact that the (conceptual) representations of a cognitive system are determined by the way the system interacts with its environment. In this way, the system obtains representations that have a meaning for the system itself. Productivity refers to the ability to process unlimited amounts of (novel) information and to generate arbitrarily many different forms of behaviour, based on a limited amount of already stored information.

The combination of grounding and productivity imposes constraints that require specific architectures for their combined implementation. In human cognition, grounding can be achieved with specific neuronal assembly structures, which can be distributed over different brain areas. These grounded conceptual representations cannot be copied, transported and pasted to form compositional structures. Instead, grounded conceptual representations remain (and have to remain) in situ when they are a part of a compositional structure.

Hence, each representation of a concept used in a compositional structure is always the same grounded representation of that concept. Compositional structures based on in situ grounded representations (neuronal assembly structures) can be temporarily formed by embedding these representations in specific compositional (neural) architectures. Different compositional architectures will be needed for different cognitive processes. They are integrated by the in situ representations they share. I will present examples of these architectures and their interactions.