This paper explores the representations underlying lexical semantics. In particular, we test whether a word’s meaning can affect a word’s articulation. In Experiment 1, participants produced high-effort (e.g., yelling) and low-effort (e.g., chatting) words that are semantically related to articulation, as well as words that are semantically unrelated to articulation (e.g., kicking). We found that vocal words were produced with greater intensity than non-vocal words. In Experiment 2, we explored the specificity of this effect by investigating how words semantically related to the mouth, but unrelated to vocalization (e.g., chewing) were articulated. Analyses revealed that mouth words did not differ from controls, and we replicated the vocal effects from Experiment 1, suggesting fine-grain motor activation from lexical semantics. Experiment 3 revealed that the semantics of a verb influences the prosodic intensity of a sentence prior to the onset of the verb. Together, these data suggest aspects of lexical meaning influence prosody, and that motor representations may underlie lexical semantics.

In this paper, the perspective of situated cognition, which gave rise both to the pragmatic theories and the so-called semantic theories of learning and has probably become the most representative standpoint of constructivism, is examined. We consider the claim of situated cognition to provide alternative explanations of the learning phenomenon to those of psychology and, especially, to those of the symbolic perspective, currently predominant in cognitive psychology. The level of analysis of situated cognition (i.e., global interactive systems) is considered an inappropriate approach to the problem of learning. From our analysis, it is concluded that the pragmatic theories and the so-called semantic theories of learning which originated in situated cognition can hardly be considered alternatives to the psychological learning theories, and they are unlikely to add anything of interest to the learning theory or to contribute to the improvement of our knowledge about the learning phenomenon.

The property generation task (i.e. “feature listing”) is often assumed to measure concepts. Typically, researchers assume implicitly that the underlying representation of a concept consists of amodal propositions, and that verbal responses during property generation reveal their conceptual content. The experiments reported here suggest instead that verbal responses during property generation reflect two alternative sources of information: the linguistic form system and the situated simulation system. In two experiments, properties bearing a linguistic relation to the word for a concept were produced earlier than properties not bearing a linguistic relation, suggesting the early properties tend to originate in a word association process. Conversely, properties produced later tended to describe objects and situations, suggesting that late properties tend to originate from describing situated simulations. A companion neuroimaging experiment reported elsewhere confirms that early properties originate in language areas, whereas later properties originate in situated simulation areas. Together, these results, along with other results in the literature, indicate that property generation is a relatively complex process, drawing on at least two systems somewhat asynchronously.

In this paper we explore the influence of the physical and social environment (the design space) son the formation of shared understanding in multidisciplinary design teams. We concentrate on the creative design meeting as a microenvironment for studying processes of design communication. Our applied research context entails the design of mixed physical–digital interactive systems supporting design meetings. Informed by theories of embodiment that have recently gained interest in cognitive science, we focus on the role of interactive “traces,” representational artifacts both created and used by participants as scaffolds for creating shared understanding. Our research through design approach resulted in two prototypes that form two concrete proposals of how the environment may scaffold shared understanding in design meetings. In several user studies we observed users working with our systems in natural contexts. Our analysis reveals how an ensemble of ongoing social as well as physical interactions, scaffolded by the interactive environment, grounds the formation of shared understanding in teams. We discuss implications for designing collaborative tools and for design communication theory in general.

During the 1980s, a community of artificial intelligence researchers became interested in formalizing problem solving methods (PSMs) as part of an effort called “second-generation expert systems.” We provide an example of how we are applying second-generation expert systems concepts in an agent-based system for space flight operations, the orbital communications adapter mirroring system (OCAMS), which was developed in the Brahms multiagent framework. Brahms modeling language provides an ontology for simulating work practices, including groups, agents, activities, communications, movements, and geographic areas. Activities are a behavioral unit of analysis to be contrasted with tasks, a functional unit of analysis. Problem solving occurs in the context of activities in the service of tasks; appropriate PSMs depend on the context: which people/roles are participating, what tools are available, how the results will be evaluated, and so forth. A work practice simulation facilitates designing workflow tools that appropriately interact with the physical and organizational context in which work occurs. OCAMS was developed using a simulation-to-implementation methodology, in which a prototype workflow tool was embedded in a Brahms simulation of how people would use the tool. The reusable components in a workflow system like OCAMS include entire “problem solvers” (e.g., a planning subsystem), interoperability frameworks, and agents that inspect and change the world. Thus, a tool kit for building workflow tools requires more than a library of PSMs, which play a relatively small role in the overall multiagent, systems-integration architecture. Our research concern has shifted to situations that may arise that are outside the OCAMS' capability. In practical decision making, people must reflect on the validity of their models. As programs becoming actors in the workplace, we need to develop systems that help people to understand the limitations of the models that drive the automated operations, which means in part detecting when the formalizations in the system are inadequate.