Language and vision: A single perceptual mechanism?

摘要

Independent work on cognitive models of visual perception and of perception of lexical items reveals a common framework underlying the two sets of cognitive mechanisms posited. From these two classes of model — one visual and the other linguistic — a unifying structure has been extracted. The integrated model is presented, discussed, and some general implications for the notion of unified theories of visual and linguistic perception are considered. In particular, we are able to demonstrate a similar structuring of contextual, or top-down, information, and a similar pattern of interplay between serial and parallel processes as well as between top-down and bottom-up information. In addition, several common problems, such as the role of ‘value’ parameters in perception, are identified.