Situated Action: A Symbolic Interpretation
Open Access
- 1 January 1993
- journal article
- Published by Wiley in Cognitive Science
- Vol. 17 (1), 7-48
- https://doi.org/10.1207/s15516709cog1701_2
Abstract
The congeries of theoretical views collectively referred to as “situated action” (SA) claim that humans and their interactions with the world cannot be understood using symbol-system models and methodology, but only by observing them within real-world contexts or building nonsymbolic models of them. SA claims also that rapid, real-time interaction with a dynamically changing environment is not amenable to symbolic interpretation of the sort espoused by the cognitive science of recent decades. Planning and representation, central to symbolic theories, are claimed to be irrelevant in everyday human activity. We will contest these claims, as well as their proponents' characterizations of the symbol-system viewpoint. We will show that a number of existing symbolic systems perform well in temporally demanding tasks embedded in complex environments, whereas the systems usually regarded as exemplifying SA are thoroughly symbolic (and representational), and, to the extent that they are limited in these respects, have doubtful prospects for extension to complex tasks. As our title suggests, we propose that the goals set forth by the proponents of SA can be attained only within the framework of symbolic systems. The main body of empirical evidence supporting our view resides in the numerous symbol systems constructed in the past 35 years that have successfully simulated broad areas of human cognition.Keywords
This publication has 12 references indexed in Scilit:
- The meaning of ‘meaning’Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) ,2010
- Combining artificial neural networks and symbolic processing for autonomous robot guidanceEngineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, 1991
- Intelligence without representationArtificial Intelligence, 1991
- In search of insightCognitive Psychology, 1990
- Cognition in PracticePublished by Cambridge University Press (CUP) ,1988
- A robust layered control system for a mobile robotIEEE Journal on Robotics and Automation, 1986
- The theory of learning by doing.Psychological Review, 1979
- The structure of ill structured problemsArtificial Intelligence, 1973
- Naming and NecessityPublished by Springer Science and Business Media LLC ,1972
- Human Memory: A Proposed System and its Control ProcessesPsychology of Learning and Motivation, 1968