PSY274H5 Lecture 1: lecture 1
Document Summary
The canonical case: one organism transmits information to another (but this is too vague) We can narrow this down by: considering: And what kinds of info are transmitted: consider the function of communication. Non-human animals: communication is very limited in terms of effect produced (ex. Mating call + potential response; threats related to territory) Human communication: extremely broad range of effects possible (ex. Social effects, emotional effects, requesting info, transmitting info, disputing info, confirming info, etc: consider the form the information takes. A helpful distinction here is info proposed by the philosopher. He said that a sign= stimulus pattern that has some meaning. Peirce clarified how meaning comes to be attached to the stimulus pattern. Peirce"s classification of signs: icon- stimulus pattern that physically resembles what it. Walk symbol on street lights: index- stimulus pattern signifies something else because itis naturally correlated with it. =rain, etc: symbol- stimulus pattern signifies something due to an arbitrary association.
