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Compositionality in visual perception

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 September 2023

Alon Hafri Open the ORCID record for Alon Hafri [Opens in a new window] ,
E. J. Green  and
Chaz Firestone Open the ORCID record for Chaz Firestone [Opens in a new window]
Alon Hafri
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics and Cognitive Science, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA. alon@udel.edu; https://pal.lingcogsci.udel.edu/
E. J. Green
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA. ejgr@mit.edu; https://sites.google.com/site/greenedwinj/
Chaz Firestone
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA. chaz@jhu.edu; https://perception.jhu.edu/
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Abstract

Quilty-Dunn et al.'s wide-ranging defense of the Language of Thought Hypothesis (LoTH) argues that vision traffics in abstract, structured representational formats. We agree: Vision, like language, is compositional – just as words compose into phrases, many visual representations contain discrete constituents that combine in systematic ways. Here, we amass evidence extending this proposal, and explore its implications for how vision interfaces with the rest of the mind.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 46 , 2023 , e277
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press

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