This document discusses attention and its role in shaping subjective experience and perspective. It begins by discussing how attention organizes our conscious field and gives us a unified perspective. It describes how attention influences how things appear, making attended objects seem more vivid or prominent. It discusses how attention is both under voluntary control but also influenced by automatic and external factors. The document argues that attention plays a fundamental role in determining our subjective point of view and the "universe we inhabit". It explores how we experience the attention of others and how social attention interactions shape our perspectives.
This report supports, inspires ,and attracts you nearer to your maker. It carries us to an acknowledgment of what our identity is, and of whom would we like to be; the one that is satisfying unto the most High GOD. This report assists me with showing some cool stuff and I believe you will as well.
On which basis we have artistic preferences?
What’s behind the emotional connection that we establish with a certain image or a specific form?
Why sometimes we tend to attribute life to an image or feel an object as a piece of us?
And finally, what kind of benefit could bring us if we pay more attention to these dynamics?
Draft notes for keynote to The Image conference, UCLA and Common Ground, 2 December 2010. Final version will be submitted to http://ontheimage.com/journal/
Paint With Me: Stimulating Creativity and Empathy IEEE VR 2017 PresentationLynda Joy Gerry
Presentation of TGCV paper Paint With Me: Stimulating Creativity and Empathy While Painting with a Painter in Virtual Reality on March 22, 2017 at IEEE VR 2017 in Los Angeles.
Are there Representations in Biological Brains?Hui Xin Ng
The goal of this essay is twofold: (i) to describe how different theorists have conceptualized the notion of representation and (ii) to evaluate the utility of the concept of representation, despite its inability to fully capture the complete phenomenological experience of existence.
Chapter 6: Perception
Selective Attention
At any moment we are conscious of a very limited amount of all that we are capable of experiencing. One example of this selective attention is the cocktail party effect—attending to only one voice among many. Another example is inattentional blindness, which refers to our blocking of a brief visual interruption when focusing on other sights.
Perceptual Illusions
Visual and auditory illusions were fascinating scientists even as psychology emerged. Explaining illusions required an understanding of how we transform sensations into meaningful perceptions, so the study of perception became one of psychology’s first concerns. Conflict between visual and other sensory information is usually resolved with the mind’s accepting the visual data, a tendency known as visual capture.
Perceptual Organization
From a top-down perspective, we see how we transform sensory information into meaningful perceptions when we are aided by knowledge and expectations.
The early Gestalt psychologists were impressed with the seemingly innate way we organize fragmentary sensory data into whole perceptions. Our minds structure the information that comes to us in several demonstrable ways:
Form Perception
To recognize an object, we must first perceive it (see it as a figure) as distinct from its surroundings (the ground). We must also organize the figure into a meaningful form. Several Gestalt principles—proximity, similarity, continuity, connectedness, and closure—describe this process.
Depth Perception
Research on the visual cliff revealed that many species perceive the world in three dimensions at, or very soon after, birth. We transform two-dimensional retinal images into three-dimensional perceptions by using binocular cues, such as retinal disparity, and monocular cues, such as the relative sizes of objects.
Motion Perception
Our brain computes motion as objects move across or toward the retina. Large objects appear to move more slowly than smaller objects. A quick succession of images, as in a motion picture or on a lighted sign, can also create an illusion of movement.
Perceptual Constancy
Having perceived an object as a coherent figure and having located it in space, how then do we recognize it—despite the varying images that it may cast on our retinas? Size, shape, and lightness constancies describe how objects appear to have unchanging characteristics regardless of their distance, shape, or motion. These constancies explain several of the well-known visual illusions. For example, familiarity with the size-distance relationships in a carpentered world of rectangular shapes makes people more susceptible to the Müller-Lyer illusion.
Perceptual Interpretation
The most direct tests of the nature-nurture issue come from experiments that modify human perceptions.
Sensory Deprivation and Restored Vision
For many species, infancy is a critical period during which experience must activate the brain’s innate visual mechanisms. If cataract removal restores eyesight to adults who were blind from birth, they remain unable to perceive the world normally. Generally, they can distinguish figure from ground and can perceive colors, but they are unable to recognize shapes and forms. In controlled experiments, animals have been reared with severely restricted visual input. When their visual exposure is returned to normal, they, too, suffer enduring visual handicaps.
Perceptual Adaptation
Human vision is remarkably adaptable. Given glasses that shift the world slightly to the left or right, or even turn it upside down, people manage to adapt their movements and, with practice, to move about with ease.
Perceptual Set
Clear evidence that perception is influenced by our experience—our learned assumptions and beliefs—as well as by sensory input comes from the many demonstrations of perceptual set and context effects. The schemas we have learned help us to interpret otherwise ambiguous stimu
Abstract the unity of mind and feelings in the process of cognition.AlaaAlchyad
The mind is the set of thinking faculties including cognitive aspects such as consciousness, imagination, perception, thinking, judgment, language, and memory, as well as non-cognitive aspects such as emotion. Under the scientific physicalist interpretation, the mind is housed at least in part in the brain
The original meaning of Old English gemynd was the faculty of memory, not of thought in general. Hence call to mind, come to mind, keep in mind, to have mind of, etc. The word retains this sense in Scotland.[1] Old English had other words to express "mind", such as hyge "mind, spirit".[2]
It is a nptel course pdf made available here from its official nptel website . Its full credit goes to nptel itself . I am just sharing it here as i thought it would help someone in need of it . It is a course of INTRODUCTION TO ADVANCED COGNITIVE PROCESSES
A discussion of the rights of sentient entities. Drawing inspiration from quantum complementarity, defends a complementary notion of ontological dualism, countering zombie hypotheses. Sans zombie concerns, ethical discussions should therefore focus on assessing consciousness purely in terms of the physical-functional properties of any putatively conscious entity.
This report supports, inspires ,and attracts you nearer to your maker. It carries us to an acknowledgment of what our identity is, and of whom would we like to be; the one that is satisfying unto the most High GOD. This report assists me with showing some cool stuff and I believe you will as well.
On which basis we have artistic preferences?
What’s behind the emotional connection that we establish with a certain image or a specific form?
Why sometimes we tend to attribute life to an image or feel an object as a piece of us?
And finally, what kind of benefit could bring us if we pay more attention to these dynamics?
Draft notes for keynote to The Image conference, UCLA and Common Ground, 2 December 2010. Final version will be submitted to http://ontheimage.com/journal/
Paint With Me: Stimulating Creativity and Empathy IEEE VR 2017 PresentationLynda Joy Gerry
Presentation of TGCV paper Paint With Me: Stimulating Creativity and Empathy While Painting with a Painter in Virtual Reality on March 22, 2017 at IEEE VR 2017 in Los Angeles.
Are there Representations in Biological Brains?Hui Xin Ng
The goal of this essay is twofold: (i) to describe how different theorists have conceptualized the notion of representation and (ii) to evaluate the utility of the concept of representation, despite its inability to fully capture the complete phenomenological experience of existence.
Chapter 6: Perception
Selective Attention
At any moment we are conscious of a very limited amount of all that we are capable of experiencing. One example of this selective attention is the cocktail party effect—attending to only one voice among many. Another example is inattentional blindness, which refers to our blocking of a brief visual interruption when focusing on other sights.
Perceptual Illusions
Visual and auditory illusions were fascinating scientists even as psychology emerged. Explaining illusions required an understanding of how we transform sensations into meaningful perceptions, so the study of perception became one of psychology’s first concerns. Conflict between visual and other sensory information is usually resolved with the mind’s accepting the visual data, a tendency known as visual capture.
Perceptual Organization
From a top-down perspective, we see how we transform sensory information into meaningful perceptions when we are aided by knowledge and expectations.
The early Gestalt psychologists were impressed with the seemingly innate way we organize fragmentary sensory data into whole perceptions. Our minds structure the information that comes to us in several demonstrable ways:
Form Perception
To recognize an object, we must first perceive it (see it as a figure) as distinct from its surroundings (the ground). We must also organize the figure into a meaningful form. Several Gestalt principles—proximity, similarity, continuity, connectedness, and closure—describe this process.
Depth Perception
Research on the visual cliff revealed that many species perceive the world in three dimensions at, or very soon after, birth. We transform two-dimensional retinal images into three-dimensional perceptions by using binocular cues, such as retinal disparity, and monocular cues, such as the relative sizes of objects.
Motion Perception
Our brain computes motion as objects move across or toward the retina. Large objects appear to move more slowly than smaller objects. A quick succession of images, as in a motion picture or on a lighted sign, can also create an illusion of movement.
Perceptual Constancy
Having perceived an object as a coherent figure and having located it in space, how then do we recognize it—despite the varying images that it may cast on our retinas? Size, shape, and lightness constancies describe how objects appear to have unchanging characteristics regardless of their distance, shape, or motion. These constancies explain several of the well-known visual illusions. For example, familiarity with the size-distance relationships in a carpentered world of rectangular shapes makes people more susceptible to the Müller-Lyer illusion.
Perceptual Interpretation
The most direct tests of the nature-nurture issue come from experiments that modify human perceptions.
Sensory Deprivation and Restored Vision
For many species, infancy is a critical period during which experience must activate the brain’s innate visual mechanisms. If cataract removal restores eyesight to adults who were blind from birth, they remain unable to perceive the world normally. Generally, they can distinguish figure from ground and can perceive colors, but they are unable to recognize shapes and forms. In controlled experiments, animals have been reared with severely restricted visual input. When their visual exposure is returned to normal, they, too, suffer enduring visual handicaps.
Perceptual Adaptation
Human vision is remarkably adaptable. Given glasses that shift the world slightly to the left or right, or even turn it upside down, people manage to adapt their movements and, with practice, to move about with ease.
Perceptual Set
Clear evidence that perception is influenced by our experience—our learned assumptions and beliefs—as well as by sensory input comes from the many demonstrations of perceptual set and context effects. The schemas we have learned help us to interpret otherwise ambiguous stimu
Abstract the unity of mind and feelings in the process of cognition.AlaaAlchyad
The mind is the set of thinking faculties including cognitive aspects such as consciousness, imagination, perception, thinking, judgment, language, and memory, as well as non-cognitive aspects such as emotion. Under the scientific physicalist interpretation, the mind is housed at least in part in the brain
The original meaning of Old English gemynd was the faculty of memory, not of thought in general. Hence call to mind, come to mind, keep in mind, to have mind of, etc. The word retains this sense in Scotland.[1] Old English had other words to express "mind", such as hyge "mind, spirit".[2]
It is a nptel course pdf made available here from its official nptel website . Its full credit goes to nptel itself . I am just sharing it here as i thought it would help someone in need of it . It is a course of INTRODUCTION TO ADVANCED COGNITIVE PROCESSES
A discussion of the rights of sentient entities. Drawing inspiration from quantum complementarity, defends a complementary notion of ontological dualism, countering zombie hypotheses. Sans zombie concerns, ethical discussions should therefore focus on assessing consciousness purely in terms of the physical-functional properties of any putatively conscious entity.
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In this class, we discuss the work of Russian literary critic Viktor Shklovsky as it pertains to visual routines we discussed in the previous class. Shklovsky claims that the purpose of art is to "impart the sensation of things as they are perceived and not as they are know."
This presentation includes a brief introduction to theory, strategies, and examples of visualization and visual
pedagogies that promote collaborative learning, followed by conversation and activities designed to illustrate the
meaning-making; deeper levels of learning; and dynamic interaction elicited within visual approaches to the curriculum.
Presented at the Sloan-C 14th Annual International Conference on Online Learning
November 7th, 2008
In this class we discuss the role of the eye and brain in creating the visual world that we perceive, with special attention to the implications for art.
Phenomenology [the study of the psyche from the first-person perspective] and Psychology [the study of the psyche from the observer's perspective] are contrasted. Understanding self-sabotaging traps - including Addictive Disorders and Neurotic Disorders - from both perspectives enhances good outcome
Honest Reviews of Tim Han LMA Course Program.pptxtimhan337
Personal development courses are widely available today, with each one promising life-changing outcomes. Tim Han’s Life Mastery Achievers (LMA) Course has drawn a lot of interest. In addition to offering my frank assessment of Success Insider’s LMA Course, this piece examines the course’s effects via a variety of Tim Han LMA course reviews and Success Insider comments.
A Strategic Approach: GenAI in EducationPeter Windle
Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies such as Generative AI, Image Generators and Large Language Models have had a dramatic impact on teaching, learning and assessment over the past 18 months. The most immediate threat AI posed was to Academic Integrity with Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) focusing their efforts on combating the use of GenAI in assessment. Guidelines were developed for staff and students, policies put in place too. Innovative educators have forged paths in the use of Generative AI for teaching, learning and assessments leading to pockets of transformation springing up across HEIs, often with little or no top-down guidance, support or direction.
This Gasta posits a strategic approach to integrating AI into HEIs to prepare staff, students and the curriculum for an evolving world and workplace. We will highlight the advantages of working with these technologies beyond the realm of teaching, learning and assessment by considering prompt engineering skills, industry impact, curriculum changes, and the need for staff upskilling. In contrast, not engaging strategically with Generative AI poses risks, including falling behind peers, missed opportunities and failing to ensure our graduates remain employable. The rapid evolution of AI technologies necessitates a proactive and strategic approach if we are to remain relevant.
How to Make a Field invisible in Odoo 17Celine George
It is possible to hide or invisible some fields in odoo. Commonly using “invisible” attribute in the field definition to invisible the fields. This slide will show how to make a field invisible in odoo 17.
Macroeconomics- Movie Location
This will be used as part of your Personal Professional Portfolio once graded.
Objective:
Prepare a presentation or a paper using research, basic comparative analysis, data organization and application of economic information. You will make an informed assessment of an economic climate outside of the United States to accomplish an entertainment industry objective.
Operation “Blue Star” is the only event in the history of Independent India where the state went into war with its own people. Even after about 40 years it is not clear if it was culmination of states anger over people of the region, a political game of power or start of dictatorial chapter in the democratic setup.
The people of Punjab felt alienated from main stream due to denial of their just demands during a long democratic struggle since independence. As it happen all over the word, it led to militant struggle with great loss of lives of military, police and civilian personnel. Killing of Indira Gandhi and massacre of innocent Sikhs in Delhi and other India cities was also associated with this movement.
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Safalta Digital marketing institute in Noida, provide complete applications that encompass a huge range of virtual advertising and marketing additives, which includes search engine optimization, virtual communication advertising, pay-per-click on marketing, content material advertising, internet analytics, and greater. These university courses are designed for students who possess a comprehensive understanding of virtual marketing strategies and attributes.Safalta Digital Marketing Institute in Noida is a first choice for young individuals or students who are looking to start their careers in the field of digital advertising. The institute gives specialized courses designed and certification.
for beginners, providing thorough training in areas such as SEO, digital communication marketing, and PPC training in Noida. After finishing the program, students receive the certifications recognised by top different universitie, setting a strong foundation for a successful career in digital marketing.
3. Thieves of Attention
“It’s all about the choreography of people’s
attention. Attention is like water. It flows. It’s liquid.
You create channels to divert it, and you hope that it
flows the right way.[…] I use framing the way a
movie director or a cinematographer would. If I lean
my face close in to someone’s […] it’s like a
closeup. All their attention is on my face, and their
pockets, especially the ones on their lower
body, are out of the frame.”*
*
Apollo Robbins in Greene
12. Because attention is
fundamental to who we
are
“[E]ach of us literally chooses, by his ways of
attending to things, what sort of a universe he
shall appear to himself to inhabit.”*
* James
1890, p.
18. Attention as Brain Mechanism
Serial central
processing/Memory Storage
Get’s
associated
with
attention
Parallel sensory processing
Filter ~ a type of information
channel
Broadbent 1958, p. 216
20. Attention as Brain Mechanism
“Attention can be
identified with the
processes that allow
information to be
encoded in working
memory.”*
*
Prinz 2012, p. 93
21. Problems
Gets the neuronal and
computational
architecture wrong
Parallel
processing, feedbackloops, predictive
coding, direct vision action
links, etc.
Wrongly identifies
attention with one of its
many effects
Effects on early
vision, temporal
sequencing, etc.
Fellman and Van Essen
22. “There is no such thing as attention”*
Maybe attention is just
an amalgamate of
distinct processes? That
they are grouped
together is due to
careless folkpsychology, historical
accident, etc.
* Anderson
2011
23. “Every one knows what attention is...”*
Start with the folk-psychology of attention
What is the function of speaking and thinking in terms of
attention?
How do we experience attention?
Connect the folk-psychology with a plausible story
about the function of attention in our cognitive lives
We experience attention as organizing our subjective
perspectives.
Attention does organize our subjective perspectives (Marr’s
computational level).
* James
1890
25. “Every one knows what attention is...”
Thick: attention
experiences put
serious constraints on
its nature, but do not
fully reveal it (science
can discover how
attention “works”)
26. “[E]ach of us literally chooses, by his ways
of attending to things, what sort of a
universe he shall appear to himself to
inhabit.”
27. “[E]ach of us literally chooses, by his ways
of attending to things, what sort of a
universe he shall appear to himself to
inhabit.”
29. Attention and Appearances
William James
“[I]n listening for certain notes in
a chord, the one we attend to
sounds probably a little more
loud . . .”**
Gustav Fechner
“The pendulum-beat of a clock
[appears to us] no louder, no
matter how much we increase
the strain of our attention upon
[it]”*
* Fechner
1889, p. 452-453; ** James 1890, p.425
30. Attention and Appearances
Look to have the same contrast!
Attended lower contrast
Unattended higher contrast
Carrasco, Ling and Read 2004
31. Attention and Appearances
“[These] changes in the phenomenology of
perception manifest themselves in experience as
differences in apparent contrast, apparent color
saturation, apparent size, apparent
speed, apparent time of occurrence and other
appearances.”*
Watzl
While powerful Block’s
argument is unsuccessful.
Attention distorts
perception, sacrificing
accuracy for usability.
Block
These results show that
representationalism and
direct realism about
phenomenology are false.
*
Block 2010, p. 23; Watzl forthcoming
32. The Appearance View
Phenomenal character (at least of perceptual experience) is
exhausted by appearances (how things look, sound, feel, etc.).
The world appears some way to S.
The way the world is present(ed) to S.
The way things look (in vision).
33. The Missing Perspective
“[T]he moment one thinks of the matter, one sees
how false a notion of experience that is which
would make it tantamount to the mere presence
to the senses of an outward order. […] Without
selective interest, experience is utter chaos.
Interest alone gives accent and emphasis, light
and shade, background and foreground –
intelligible perspective, in a word.*
* James
1890
39. Phenomenal Structure
Defined Notions:
… is at the center of your field of consciousness =
nothing is experienced more centrally than ….
... attention is split between a and b = neither a nor b are
experienced more centrally than the other, and both are
experienced more centrally than everything.
Sometimes there is a center of attention, and sometimes there
isn’t.
… is at the fringe of consciousness = … is not
experience more centrally than anything.
Being at the fringe or center of your field need not make a
difference to how things appear to you (things need not look
blurry)
40. Centrality Connectedness
An experiential episode E is centrality connected = for all e1 and e2: if
e1 is a part of E and e2 is a part of E, then there is a centrality path
between e1 and e2.
Centrality connected
(though with attention split symmetrically)
Not Centrality connected
41. Attention Systems
Let’s call an experiential episode that is centrality connected an
attention system.
One attention system
Two attention systems
42. Attention and the Unity of Consciousness
The Attention Account of the Unity of Consciousness
e1 … eN are phenomenally unified if and only of (and
because) e1 … eN form an attention system.
If attention systems are exactly as big as phenomenally
unified experiences, then the attention account of unity is
plausible.
43. Intuitive Considerations
Tim Bayne: a variety of experiences
are unified just if they are subsumed
by a single “phenomenal perspective”
I “get” the intuition when I think of
phenomenal perspectives in terms of
focus and periphery (as attention
systems): when I focus on the visual
world in front of me, my conscious
thoughts, emotions, action-awareness
recede into the background. When I
focus on my conscious thoughts, the
visual world recedes into the
background.
*
Bayne 2012
44. How Unified is Attention?
1.
2.
3.
Jesse Prinz
Something close to the attention
account of unity is true.
Attention systems are not unified
(most of the time); So:
Consciousness is not unified
(most of the time)
*
Prinz 2012/2013
45. How Unified is Attention?
Unified Kind Question
Is attention a unified kind? Or is “attention” rather a label for a
number of fundamentally disunified phenomena?
Do all so-called attention-paradigms in the empirical literature
study a single phenomenon?
Structuralism as an account of the unified kind.
Unified Systems Question
Is there a single “resource” shared by all “attention-demanding”
tasks?
Is attention in X independent from attention in Y (where X and Y:
visual and auditory modality; left and right hemisphere; tasks that
rely on distinct neural architecture)?
Prinz: No
Watzl: probably yes
46. “[E]ach of us literally chooses, by his ways
of attending to things, what sort of a
universe he shall appear to himself to
inhabit.”
47. “[E]ach of us literally chooses, by his ways
of attending to things, what sort of a
universe he shall appear to himself to
inhabit.”
50. It often doesn’t seem so
Sometimes attention is
automatically drawn to
something against our will.
Sometimes attention drifts
aimlessly.
51. It often doesn’t seem so
15-50 % of the time
subject’s attention is
focused on task-irrelevant
thoughts, images, and
activities (mind-wandering)*
Yes, that also applies to
reading** (philosophy) and
listening to philosophy
talks.***
*Smallwood
and Schooler 2006, ** Schooler et al 2004, *** Schwitzgebel 2010, 2014
53. Killingsworth and Gilbert*
Large-scale Happiness Survey
Mind-wandering occurs in almost half of
the samples (see above)
Mind-wandering strongly correlates with
decrease
in
happiness
(topicindependent).
Mind-wandering likely a cause of
unhappiness (studied by a detailed
correlation analysis).
Mind-wandering is a major factor in
explaining between and within subject
variances in happiness.
Pessimistic Conclusion:
“A human mind is a wandering
mind, and a wandering mind is
an unhappy mind.”
*
Killingsworth and Gilbert 2010
54. Prettyman and Watzl*
Mind-wandering can be
Endorsed vs unendorsed
Acratic vs. encratic
The K&G effects might be fully
driven by unendorsed and
acratic cases
Endorsed and encratic mindwandering is important for
creative problem-solving
open-mindedness
*
Prettyman and Watzl 2011, in progress
56. Two Types of Attention?
Voluntary Attention
Automatic Attention
57. Probably not
Attention capture, even when attention is not
controlled, is contingent on which task the subject is
performing, her prior experience, her
goals, rewards, interests, etc.*
Biased Competition
Stimuli (or information carrying items) “compete for
representation, analysis, or control […] This competition
process is biased [… ] [through top-down signals] towards
information that is currently relevant to behavior”
*
Yantis and Jonides 1990 (and many others since).; ** Desimone and Duncan 1995
58. Activity
Attention is a univocal process.
Voluntarism is true of that process (the subject can
voluntarily control it, and become aware of engaging
in it).
This process is guided from within the subject’s
perspective
Her intentions and goals.
The phenomenal salience of her experiences
These are signs that attention is an activity.
59. What are you aware of when you are aware of attending?
62. Salience and Imperative Contents
The phenomenal salience of an experiential event is
a kind of content
Imperative Contents for Perception*
Perceptual experience represents contents of the form
<Attend to this!>.
These imperative contents are dynamic contents
not a set of accuracy conditions, but a rule for updating
your mental state.
The update rule, to first approximation, takes you from an
experience with the current focus of attention to an
experience with a different focus of attention (more generally:
it restructures your experience; see below)
* Siegel,
Bengson, Kelly, Cussins (and arguably: Husserl, Heidegger, and MerleauPonty) discuss similar phenomena
66. Attention and the Structures of Consciousness
The Structure of Mind.
The Process of Attending.
Why some of Mentality is not Propositional
Experiencing the Attention of Others.
Why the Field of Consciousness is Unified (when it is)
Objects of Attention.
Why the Stream of Consciousness Flows Forward
Attention Systems.
Why Consciousness is Agential
Salience.
Why Consciousness is a Stream
Control of Attention.
Why Consciousness is a Field
How we solve the Problem of Other Minds
Experiencing our own Attention.
How we solve the Problem of our own Minds
67. “[E]ach of us literally chooses, by his ways
of attending to things, what sort of a
universe he shall appear to himself to
inhabit.”
68. “[E]ach of us literally chooses, by his ways
of attending to things, what sort of a
universe he shall appear to himself to
inhabit.”
70. Experiencing the Attention of Others
We often seem to experience the
attention of others. Indeed, we
often see it.
“The attention of others is probably
the first, simplest, and most powerful
experience that we have of
mentality” “To have someone attend
to us can
soothe, exhilarate, frighten, inspire,
embarrass, enrage, irritate, and in
so many ways touch us at our core”*
*
Vasu Reddy (2008). How Infants Know
71. Experiencing the Attention of Others
But can we really see the mental states of others?
Are mental properties among the properties represented
by perceptual experience?
Work with Jola Feix (CSMN) (drawing on work by
Susanna Siegel (Harvard))
1.
2.
3.
We sometimes have visual experiences as of the covert
attention [of the expression of a mental occurrence] others;
If (1.) , we have visual experiences of mental properties (of
others); So:
We sometimes have visual experiences of mental properties.
72. Attentional Engineering
We affect the attentional
environment of others
Gaze is a strong attention
trigger.
The same for pointing.
How are these visually
represented?
As salience gradients?
As representations of the
intentions of others (“she
intends me to attend to x”)
In between/something else
73.
74. Joint Attention
You and I attend to this together.
In a way that is “coordinated”.
What is Joint Attention?
Picture A: Sophisticated and individualistic
Picture B: Primitivist and mind-sharing
Individual acts of attention coordinated by
perspective taking and common
knowledge,
A primitive mental activity irreducibly
engaged by a plurality of subjects.
Picture A probably incompatible with early
development. Picture B makes mysterious
why joint attention requires individual
attention.
Goal: work on a solution drawing on
resources provided above
75. Joint Attention
Requires and might be the most simple form of
Informational Cooperation
Moll, Carpenter, Tomasello:
In the presence of joint attention, agential
cooperation often seems rationally compelling
where it does not seem rationally compelling
in its absence
Unique to humans.
Central to our ability for cumulative epistemic
engineering (the ratchet of cultural evolution)
Wyman et al. 2012
Campbell 2012
Why do people in fact cooperate like that? Is
this cooperation justified or rational?
“The Social Mind: Origins of Collective
Reasoning” (workshop co-organized with
Katharine Browne (CSMN) and Jola Feix
(CSMN))
76. Thanks for listening
… and for (hopefully at least 50 %
of the time) joining our attention