Re: Representationalism rescues reinforcement learning

Alpha wrote:
"Glen M. Sizemore" <gmsizemore2@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
[...]
Especially since I can't give much meaning to: "if the external environment is not shaping it just now." Behavior that has been affected by consequences is not necessarily "currently being shaped." Plus "less intense version of an actual response" appears to be about what I wrote, but activity in the hippocampus is probably not profitably viewed as behavior. The hippocampus appears to have something to do with the so-called transfer of memories from short to long term memory, but the view that memory is some sort of literal storage of representations is mere assumption.


Hmmm. What then is memory if not storage of a representation (even if a spread-out pattern of changes in tissue that is the representation)? Do you know the definition of memory?

What is it that I see when I see in my mind's eye, the "representation" of the apple on the table that was there yesterday and is no longer there?
[...]

On what grounds do you suppose that what you "see in your mind's eye" is in fact an accurate "representation" of the apple that was on the table yesterday and is no longer there? What evidence do you have that you can accurately "see in the mind's eye" the "representation" if that particular apple? Without external evidence, all you have to compare this memory with is --- your memory of remembering that apple....

To put it another way, what kind of experiment would you devise to test the claim that we can accurately "see in the mind's eye" the "representation" if that particular apple?

Consider the question hearsay and eye-witness testimony in a court of law. Hearsay has long been disallowed, not because people are likely to lie, but because people have notoriously bad recall of what was said. The same is true of eye-witness testimony, although courts have only recently come to treat eye-witness testimony as requiring corroboration.

Elizabeth Loftus's experiments (replicated by many other researchers) have shown that _any_ testimony based on personal experience is unreliable. That is difficult to explain if memory is a matter of calling up in the mind's eye some record of what was seen, for example. But it is easy to explain if remembering is conceived as a behaviour like any other, and therefore under stimulus control. In that case, each act of remembering is shaped by the context in which the remembering occurs. Interrogators have, nor surprisingly, long relied on this fact. That's why confessions are suspect in and of themselves, and courts go to some lengths to assure themselves that the confession in question is not tainted by unacceptable practices.

[...]

--


Wolf

"Don't believe everything you think." (Maxine)
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Relevant Pages

  • Re: Representationalism rescues reinforcement learning
    ... so-called transfer of memories from short to long term memory, ... spread-out pattern of changes in tissue that is the representation)? ... On what grounds do you suppose that what you "see in your mind's eye" is ... in fact an accurate "representation" of the apple that was on the table ...
    (comp.ai.philosophy)
  • Re: Representationalism rescues reinforcement learning
    ... so-called transfer of memories from short to long term memory, ... in fact an accurate "representation" of the apple that was on the table ... Hearsay has long been disallowed, not because people are likely to ... The same is true of eye-witness testimony, ...
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