A critical property of the perception of spoken words is the transient ambiguity of the speech signal. In localist models of speech perception this ambiguity is captured by allowing the parallel activation of multiple lexical representations. This paper examines how a distributed model of speech perception can accommodate this property. Statistical analyses of vector spaces show that coactivation of multiple distributed representations is inherently noisy, and depends on parameters such as sparseness and dimensionality. Furthermore, the characteristics of coactivation vary considerably, (...) depending on the organization of distributed representations within the mental lexicon. This view of lexical access is supported by analyses of phonological and semantic word representations, which provide an explanation of a recent set of experiments on coactivation in speech perception (Gaskell & Marslen–Wilson, 1999). (shrink)

A number of recent studies have examined the effects of phonological variation on the perception of speech. These studies show that both the lexical representations of words and the mechanisms of lexical access are organized so that natural, systematic variation is tolerated by the perceptual system, while a general intolerance of random deviation is maintained. Lexical abstraction distinguishes between phonetic features that form the invariant core of a word and those that are susceptible to variation. Phonological inference relies on the (...) context of surface changes to retrieve the underlying phonological form. In this article we present a model of these processes in speech perception, based on connectionist learning techniques. A simple recurrent network was trained on the mapping from the variant surface form of speech to the underlying form. Once trained, the network exhibited features of both abstraction and inference in its processing of normal speech, and predicted that similar behavior will be found in the perception of nonsense words. This prediction was confirmed in subsequent research (Gaskell & Marslen-Wilson, 1994). (shrink)

First Published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

In response to globalization, is there to be a single, homogeneous set of aesthetic values governing the production and consumption of art? I focus on a newcomer to globalized contemporary art, China, and argue that artworld art is far from the only art currently being produced. I describe four connected kinds of art currently made in China: Modernist, traditional, and avant-garde, which are artworld art, and mass commercial, which is not. Practices in all four conform to expectations globally that Chinese (...) art of all kinds should exemplify imitation, emulation, and copying. Such conformity entails what Winnie Wong has termed ‘staging Chineseness’. I conclude with an examination of this process in two recent exhibitions before proposing that a proliferation of a variety of values is unavoidable while contemporary artworld practitioners continue to introduce local concerns, and while the self-claimed high status of artworld art is progressively challenged by the vitality worldwide of non-artworld art. While some of these values are resistant to Western globalizing homogenization, others conform to it. (shrink)

Learning a mapping involves finding regularities in a training set and generalization to novel patterns. Clark & Thornton's type distinction has been discussed in terms of generalization, but has limited value in this respect. However, in terms of detection of regularities in the training set, the distinction is more valid, as it provides a measure of complexity and correlates with the size of search space.

La Vita di Filareto il Misericordioso, un testo agiografico di grande interesse storico e letterario, oggetto di riscritture e traduzioni, fu edita per la prima volta nel 1900 da Vasiliev, dal Paris. gr. 1510 (V). Nonostante la maggiore antichità del codice (X secolo), quella di V risultò in seguito una versione secondaria rispetto alla versione edita nel 1934 da Fourmy e Leroy, tratta dai codici Genuensis Urbanus 34 (G) dell'XI secolo e Paris. gr. 1608 (P) del XIV secolo, e riedita (...) ora da Lennart Rydén, recentemente scomparso. Le altre versioni dell'opera sono oggetto di uno studio, di cui è annunciata la pubblicazione, da parte di Jan Olof Rosenqvist. (shrink)

The Oxford Handbook of Psycholinguistics brings together the views of 75 leading researchers in psycholinguistics to provide a comprehensive and authoritative review of the current state of the art in psycholinguistics. With almost 50 chapters written by experts in the field, the range and depth of coverage is unequalled.

Most words in English are ambiguous between different interpretations; words can mean different things in different contexts. We investigate the implications of different types of semantic ambiguity for connectionist models of word recognition. We present a model in which there is competition to activate distributed semantic representations. The model performs well on the task of retrieving the different meanings of ambiguous words, and is able to simulate data reported by Rodd, Gaskell, and Marslen‐Wilson [J. Mem. Lang. 46 (2002) 245] (...) on how semantic ambiguity affects lexical decision performance. In particular, the network shows a disadvantage forwords with multiple unrelated meanings (e.g., bark) that coexists with a benefit for words with multiple related word senses (e.g., twist). The ambiguity disadvantage arises because of interference between the different meanings, while the sense benefit arises because of differences in the structure of the attractor basins formed during learning. Words with few senses develop deep, narrow attractor basins, while words with many senses develop shallow, broad basins. We conclude that the mental representations of word meanings can be modelled as stable states within a high‐dimensional semantic space, and that variations in the meanings of words shape the landscape of this space. (shrink)

I respond to Norris et al.'s criticism of Gaskell and Marslen- Wilson (1997). When the latter's network is tested in circumstances comparable to the Merge simulations in the target article, it produces the desired pattern of results. In another area of potential feedback in spoken word processing, aspects of lexical content influence word recognition and our network provides a simple explanation of why such effects emerge. It is unclear how such effects would be accommodated by Merge.

We tend to associate Henry David Thoreau with the renunciation of material possessions, projecting onto him our fantasies of a life lived beyond the modern obsession with "things." But Thoreau's practical philosophy held a special place for tools, artworks, Native American artifacts, and a variety of natural phenomena. In Mindprints, Ivan Gaskell focuses on the material items that were important to Thoreau, using them to reveal Thoreau's unique and profound aesthetics of everyday life and the environment. "Mindprint" was Thoreau's (...) term for a material object that has captured the presence of its maker and first user. Thoreau applied the term to ancient stone artifacts and other objects in an effort to capture something of the relationship between material items and humans. For Thoreau, these relationships contribute to the creation of "worlds." By looking at Thoreau's engagement with material worlds through his writings and his practical philosophical experiment at Walden Pond--but also, importantly, via his work as a designer of improved pencils, as a house builder, as a land surveyor, and as a collector--Gaskell reveals the aesthetics at the heart of Thoreau's thinking. (shrink)

Although museums of all kinds continue to proliferate, they have lost the capacity to generate big ideas that characterize epistemic shifts, such as evolution, the labour theory of value, or relativity. They have become mere echo chambers for ideas proposed elsewhere. How might museums regain their capacity to generate big ideas? The development of a Tangible Turn in scholarly thinking is leading to a reinvigoration of knowledge claims derived from material things. Museums are well placed to participate in such a (...) reinvigoration, and in some instances – notably in the natural sciences – already are. Yet to do so they must overcome the taxonomic and systematic divisions that in the nineteenth century stimulated but now inhibit creative thinking. How can disciplinary ossification associated with collection definition be overcome? Two possible models are artists' interventions and arrangement according to philosophical principles, yet neither is sufficient. Curatorial scholars should acknowledge the physical and cultural instability of tangible things, and work with these properties to combine things in revelatory ways, eschewing stable categories. This can be accomplished most effectively in museums associated with universities through collaboration among the scholarly staffs of university collections and with university faculty. (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: 1 2 3 4 5 6.

Some chapters revisions of works previously issued 2004-2016.

This chapter contains sections titled: Respecting Sacred Objects: Some Difficulties Alternative Grounds for Respect: The Historical and Aesthetic Properties of an Object.

Il libro di C., che costituisce il quinto volume della nuova promettente collana diretta da E.V. Maltese, nella quale sono già apparsi importanti contributi ed altri sono annunciati, comprende l'edizione critica e il commento di una parte delle poesie anacreontiche giunte sino a noi nella ben nota raccolta tramandata, mutila, come dimostra l'indice antico dei ff. 1-7, dal codice Barb. gr. 310, e più precisamente i componimenti classicheggianti sopravvissuti nella prima parte del manoscritto, con l'esclusione delle anacreontiche di Sofronio di (...) Gerusalemme, tutte già ripubblicate in edizione critica nel 1957, e dell'anacreontica di Michele Sincello, riedita in anni recenti. Anche i poemetti dei cinque autori scelti da C. — Elia Sincello, Ignazio Diacono, Leone Magistro, Giovanni di Gaza e Giorgio Grammatico — sono stati, per la verità, già pubblicati (e taluni tradotti in italiano) una o più volte, e forse, almeno da un punto di vista utilitaristico, sarebbe valsa la pena di ripubblicare tutta la sezione di anacreontiche classicheggianti della Silloge. Tanto più che questa nuova edizione ha soprattutto il merito di consentire al lettore italiano, anche non bizantinista, una uniforme consultazione di testi complessi ed eterogenei, degli apparati, della traduzione a fronte, accompagnata da note di commento; sebbene l'indice generale del volume, poco dettagliato, e non preceduto da un indice dei nomi, non aiuti il lettore nell'individuazione immediata dei testi e degli argomenti. (shrink)

The study of social values has its origins in the study of both cross cultural and within cultural differences in latent or manifest definitions of the right social order to achieve the good life. To this extent, the social scientific literature is replete with references to them. Yet, researchers either use the term values Social values are often used interchangeably with that of attitudes or treated as a post-hoc explanatory concept. When values are the focal research point, such endeavours predominantly (...) depart from universal and reductionist understandings of their functions, meanings and structures. Through tracing the roots of key theoretical and empirical investigations in values, originating in the work of Charles Morris, Gordon Allport, Florence Kluckhohn and Fred Strodtbeck, Milton Rokeach and Shalom Schwartz, we reveal the common as well as the different tenets underpinning their work. It will be shown that these accounts have lost sight of the importance of plurality and context. We claim that a renewed program of research in values is needed, which should be characterised by methodological pluralism in order to investigate a) value plurality, b) value specificity and c) values as properties and as processes. (shrink)

Biotechnology is one of the fastest-growing areas of scientific, technical and industrial innovation and one of the most controversial. As developments have occurred such as genetic test therapies and the breeding of genetically modified food crops, so the public debates have become more heated and grave concerns have been expressed about access to genetic information, labelling of genetically modified foods and human and animal cloning. Across Europe, public opinion has become a crucial factor in the ability of governments and biotech (...) industries to exploit the new technology. This 2002 book presents the results of a unique cross-national and cross-disciplinary study of the relationship between the development of new biotechnology and public perception, media coverage and policy formulation. It outlines a conceptual framework for understanding these issues and contains a number of empirical studies including studies of the international controversies surrounding the cloning of Dolly the sheep and GM Soya. (shrink)

Anthropological Theory for the Twenty-First Century presents a critical approach to the study of anthropological theory for the next generation of aspiring anthropologists. Through a carefully curated selection of readings, this collection reflects the diversity of scholars who have long contributed to the development of anthropological theory, incorporating writings by scholars of colour, non-Western scholars, and others whose contributions have historically been under-acknowledged. The volume puts writings from established canonical thinkers, such as Marx, Boas, and Foucault, into productive conversations with (...) DuBois, Ortíz, Medicine, Trouillot, Said, and many others. The authors also engage in critical conversations surrounding the "canon" itself, including its colonial history and decolonial potential. Updating the canon with late twentieth century and early twenty-first century scholarship, this reader includes discussions of contemporary theories such as queer theory, decolonial theory, ontology, and anti-racism. Each section is framed by clear and concise editorial introductions that place the readings in context and conversation with each other. Posing thoughtful questions to students, and including a glossary to facilitate reader comprehension, the authors have also designed a dynamic companion website to recommend additional resources, including multimedia materials, supplemental readings, links to author websites, and more. (shrink)