A study of types and cognitive functions of representation from an interactionist perspective

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I have studied what roles representation plays in cognition from an interactionist perspective. The results are as follows. (1)Cognition is divided into two groups, one requiring representation and the other not. In the latter group there is an intimate interaction between an organism and its environment that is adequately described as a dynamical process, while the former group includes a process which is adequately described as transformations of representations or a convergence of stimuli into a certain inner state. (2)There are at least three types of representation ; symbolic representations which have syntactic structure and so are productive, pictorial representations which evoke a perception similar to the one evoked by the represented object, and distributed representations which represent composite things without decomposing. (3)The relatively low level of organism environment interaction such as perception or walking is enabled by distributed representations while the relati … More vely high level of interaction such as mediated by a plan or inference is enabled by symbolic representations. Pictorial representations enable a quasi perceptual experience of the represented object by evoking a perception similar to the one evoked by the object. (4)Thought includes symbolic representation while perception includes distributed one. Therefore thought has conceptual content which enables rational inference while perception has nonconceptual content which does not. As a consequence, perception cannot be a reason for having any thought. Nevertheless a perception can justify the thought which it causes in the sense that the thought is true when the perception is true. (5)Perceptions in different sense modalities such as vision, audition or touch employ different types of representation. Therefore the answer to the Molyneux's question is negative. However representations in different sense modalities which represent the same things have a tendency to be accommodated into the same concept. This tendency ensures that the uniqueness of the objective world is conceptually secured. Less