@article{BeimGraben2014, author = {Beim Graben, Peter}, title = {Contextual emergence of intentionality}, series = {Journal of consciousness studies : controversies in science \& the humanities ; an international multi-disciplinary journal}, volume = {21}, journal = {Journal of consciousness studies : controversies in science \& the humanities ; an international multi-disciplinary journal}, number = {5-6}, publisher = {Imprint Academic}, address = {Exeter}, issn = {1355-8250}, pages = {75 -- 96}, year = {2014}, abstract = {By means of an intriguing physical example, magnetic surface swimmers, that can be described in terms of Dennett's intentional stance, I reconstruct a hierarchy of necessary and sufficient conditions for the applicability of the intentional strategy. It turns out that the different levels of the intentional hierarchy are contextually emergent from their respective subjacent levels by imposing stability constraints upon them. At the lowest level of the hierarchy, phenomenal physical laws emerge for the coarse-grained description of open, nonlinear, and dissipative non-equilibrium systems in critical states. One level higher, dynamic patterns, such as, for example, magnetic surface swimmers, are contextually emergent as they are invariant under certain symmetry operations. Again one level up, these patterns behave apparently rationally by selecting optimal pathways for the dissipation of energy that is delivered by external gradients. This is in accordance with the restated Second Law of thermodynamics as a stability criterion. At the highest level, true believers are intentional systems that are stable under exchanging their observation conditions.}, language = {en} } @article{GerthBeimGraben2009, author = {Gerth, Sabrina and Beim Graben, Peter}, title = {Unifying syntactic theory and sentence processing difficulty through a connectionist minimalist parser}, issn = {1871-4080}, doi = {10.1007/s11571-009-9093-1}, year = {2009}, abstract = {Syntactic theory provides a rich array of representational assumptions about linguistic knowledge and processes. Such detailed and independently motivated constraints on grammatical knowledge ought to play a role in sentence comprehension. However most grammar-based explanations of processing difficulty in the literature have attempted to use grammatical representations and processes per se to explain processing difficulty. They did not take into account that the description of higher cognition in mind and brain encompasses two levels: on the one hand, at the macrolevel, symbolic computation is performed, and on the other hand, at the microlevel, computation is achieved through processes within a dynamical system. One critical question is therefore how linguistic theory and dynamical systems can be unified to provide an explanation for processing effects. Here, we present such a unification for a particular account to syntactic theory: namely a parser for Stabler's Minimalist Grammars, in the framework of Smolensky's Integrated Connectionist/Symbolic architectures. In simulations we demonstrate that the connectionist minimalist parser produces predictions which mirror global empirical findings from psycholinguistic research.}, language = {en} } @article{TrollBeimGraben1998, author = {Troll, G{\"u}nter and Beim Graben, Peter}, title = {Zipfs law is not a consequence of the central limit theorem}, year = {1998}, language = {en} } @article{SaddyBeimGrabenSchlesewsky1999, author = {Saddy, Douglas and Beim Graben, Peter and Schlesewsky, Matthias}, title = {Measuring entropy during language processing}, year = {1999}, language = {en} } @article{SaddyBeimGrabenSchlesewsky1999, author = {Saddy, Douglas and Beim Graben, Peter and Schlesewsky, Matthias}, title = {Cortical Dynamics of Language Processes}, year = {1999}, language = {en} } @article{SaddySchlesewskyBeimGraben1999, author = {Saddy, Douglas and Schlesewsky, Matthias and Beim Graben, Peter}, title = {Cylinder Entropies and Case resolution}, year = {1999}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{BeimGraben2000, author = {Beim Graben, Peter}, title = {Symbolische Dynamik ereigniskorrelierter Gehirnpotentiale in der Sprachverarbeitung}, pages = {112 S.}, year = {2000}, language = {de} } @article{BeimGrabenSaddySchlesewskyetal.2000, author = {Beim Graben, Peter and Saddy, Douglas and Schlesewsky, Matthias and Kurths, J{\"u}rgen}, title = {Symbolic dynamics of event-related brain potentials}, year = {2000}, language = {en} } @article{BeimGrabenFrisch2004, author = {Beim Graben, Peter and Frisch, Stefan}, title = {Is it positive or negative? On determining ERP components}, issn = {0018-9294}, year = {2004}, abstract = {In most experiments using event-related brain potentials (ERPs), there is a straightforward way to define-on theoretical grounds-which of the conditions tested is the experimental condition and which is the control condition. It, however, theoretical assumptions do not give sufficient and unambiguous information to decide this question, then the interpretation of an ERP effect becomes difficult, especially if one takes into account that certain effects can be both a positivity or a negativity on the basis of the morphology of the pattern as well as with respect to peak latency (regard for example, N400 and P345). Exemplified with an ERP experiment on language processing, we present such a critical case and offer a possible solution on the basis of nonlinear data analysis. We show that a generalized polarity histogram, the word statistics of symbolic dynamics, is in principle able to distinguish negative going ERP components from positive ones when an appropriate encoding strategy, the half wave encoding is employed. We propose statistical criteria which allow to determine ERP components on purely methodological grounds}, language = {en} } @article{BeimGrabenJurishSaddyetal.2004, author = {Beim Graben, Peter and Jurish, B. and Saddy, Douglas and Frisch, Stefan}, title = {Language processing by dynamical systems}, issn = {0218-1274}, year = {2004}, abstract = {We describe a part of the stimulus sentences of a German language processing ERP experiment using a context- free grammar and represent different processing preferences by its unambiguous partitions. The processing is modeled by deterministic pushdown automata. Using a theorem proven by Moore, we map these automata onto discrete time dynamical systems acting at the unit square, where the processing preferences are represented by a control parameter. The actual states of the automata are rectangles lying in the unit square that can be interpreted as cylinder sets in the context of symbolic dynamics theory. We show that applying a wrong processing preference to a certain input string leads to an unwanted invariant set in the parsers dynamics. Then, syntactic reanalysis and repair can be modeled by a switching of the control parameter - in analogy to phase transitions observed in brain dynamics. We argue that ERP components are indicators of these bifurcations and propose an ERP-like measure of the parsing model}, language = {en} } @article{FrischBeimGrabenSchlesewsky2004, author = {Frisch, Stefan and Beim Graben, Peter and Schlesewsky, Matthias}, title = {Parallelizing grammatical functions : P600 and P345 reflect different cost of reanalysis}, issn = {0218-1274}, year = {2004}, abstract = {It is well-known from psycholinguistic literature that the human language processing system exhibits preferences when sentence constituents are ambiguous with respect to their grammatical function. Generally, many theories assume that an interpretation towards the subject is preferred in such cases. Later disambiguations which contradict such a preference induce enhanced processing difficulty (i.e. reanalysis) which reflects itself in late positive deflections (P345/P600) in event-related brain potentials (ERPs). In the case of phoric elements such as pronouns, a second strategy is known according to which an ambiguous pronoun preferentially receives the grammatical function that its antecedent has (parallel function strategy). In an ERP study, we show that this strategy can in principle override the general subject preference strategy (known for both pronominal and nonpronominal constituents) and induce an object preference, in case that the pronoun's antecedent is itself an object. Interestingly, the revision of a subject preference leads to a P600 component, whereas the revision of an object preference induces an earlier positivity (P345). In order to show that the latter component is indeed a positivity and not an N400-like negativity in the same time range, we apply an additional analysis based on symbolic dynamics which allows to determine the polarity of an ERP effect on purely methodological grounds. With respect to the two positivities, we argue that the latency differences reflect qualitative differences in the reanalysis processes}, language = {en} } @article{BeimGrabenSaddyKurths2004, author = {Beim Graben, Peter and Saddy, Douglas and Kurths, J{\"u}rgen}, title = {Untitled}, year = {2004}, language = {de} } @article{BeimGrabenFrischFinketal.2005, author = {Beim Graben, Peter and Frisch, Stefan and Fink, A. and Saddy, Douglas and Kurths, J{\"u}rgen}, title = {Topographic voltage and coherence mapping of brain potentials by means of the symbolic resonance analysis}, issn = {1539-3755}, year = {2005}, abstract = {We apply the recently developed symbolic resonance analysis to electroencephalographic measurements of event- related brain potentials (ERPs) in a language processing experiment by using a three-symbol static encoding with varying thresholds for analyzing the ERP epochs, followed by a spin-flip transformation as a nonlinear filter. We compute an estimator of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for the symbolic dynamics measuring the coherence of threshold-crossing events. Hence, we utilize the inherent noise of the EEG for sweeping the underlying ERP components beyond the encoding thresholds. Plotting the SNR computed within the time window of a particular ERP component (the N400) against the encoding thresholds, we find different resonance curves for the experimental conditions. The maximal differences of the SNR lead to the estimation of optimal encoding thresholds. We show that topographic brain maps of the optimal threshold voltages and of their associated coherence differences are able to dissociate the underlying physiological processes, while corresponding maps gained from the customary voltage averaging technique are unable to do so}, language = {en} } @article{BeimGraben2005, author = {Beim Graben, Peter}, title = {Symbolic resonance analysis of event-related potentials distinguishes different physiological processes}, issn = {0898-929X}, year = {2005}, language = {en} } @article{FrischBeimGraben2005, author = {Frisch, Stefan and Beim Graben, Peter}, title = {Finding needles in haystacks : Symbolic resonance analysis of event-related potentials unveils different processing demands}, year = {2005}, abstract = {Previous ERP studies have found an N400-P600 pattern in sentences in which the number of arguments does not match the number of arguments that the verb can take. In the present study, we elaborate on this question by investigating whether the case of the mismatching object argument in German (accusative/direct object versus dative/ indirect object) affects processing differently. In general, both types of mismatches elicited a biphasic N400 P600 response in the ERP. However, traditional voltage average analysis was unable to reveal differences between the two mismatching conditions, that is, between a mismatching accusative versus dative. Therefore, we employed a recently developed method on ER-P data analysis, the symbolic resonance analysis (SRA), where EEG epochs are symbolically encoded in sequences of three symbols depending on a given parameter, the encoding threshold. We found a larger proportion of threshold crossing events with negative polarity in the N400 time window for a mismatching dative argument compared to a mismatching accusative argument. By contrast, the proportion of threshold crossing events with positive polarity was smaller for dative in the P600 time window. We argue that this difference is due to the phenomenon of "free dative" in German. This result also shows that the SRA provides a useful tool for revealing ERP differences that cannot be discovered using the traditional voltage average analysis. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved}, language = {en} } @article{DrenhausBeimGrabenSaddyetal.2005, author = {Drenhaus, Heiner and Beim Graben, Peter and Saddy, Douglas and Frisch, Stefan}, title = {On the processing of negative polarity constructions revealed by the symbolic resonance analysis}, issn = {0898-929X}, year = {2005}, language = {en} } @article{DrenhausBeimGrabenSaddyetal.2006, author = {Drenhaus, Heiner and Beim Graben, Peter and Saddy, Douglas and Frisch, Stefan}, title = {Diagnosis and repair of negative polarity constructions in the light of symbolic resonance analysis}, issn = {0093-934X}, doi = {10.1016/j.bandl.2005.05.001}, year = {2006}, abstract = {in a post hoc analysis, we investigate differences in event-related potentials of two studies (Drenhaus et al., 2004, to appear; Saddy et al., 2004) by using the symbolic resonance analysis (Beim Graben \& Kurths, 2003). The studies under discussion, examined the failure to license a negative polarity item (NPI) in German: Saddy et al. (2004a) reported an N400 component when the NPI was not accurately licensed by negation; Drenhaus et al. (2004, to appear) considered additionally the influence of constituency of the licensor in NPI constructions. A biphasic N400-P600 response was found for the two induced violations (the lack of licensor and the inaccessibility of negation in a relative clause). The symbolic resonance analysis (SRA) revealed an effect in the P600 time window for the data in Saddy et al., which was not found by using the averaging technique. The SRA of the ERPs in Drenhaus et al., showed that the P600 components are distinguishable concerning the amplitude and latency. It was smaller and earlier in the condition where the licensor is inaccessible, compared to the condition without negation in the string. Our findings suggest that the failure in licensing NPIs is not exclusively related to semantic integration costs (N400). The elicited P600 components reflect differences in syntactic processing. Our results confirm and replicate the effects of the traditional voltage average analysis and show that the SRA is a useful tool to reveal and pull apart ERP differences which are not evident using the traditional voltage average analysis.}, language = {en} } @article{BeimGrabenAtmanspacher2006, author = {Beim Graben, Peter and Atmanspacher, Harald}, title = {Complementarity in classical dynamical systems}, issn = {0015-9018}, doi = {10.1007/s10701-005-9013-0}, year = {2006}, abstract = {The concept of complementarity, originally defined for non-commuting observables of quantum systems with states of non-vanishing dispersion, is extended to classical dynamical systems with a partitioned phase space. Interpreting partitions in terms of ensembles of epistemic states (symbols) with corresponding classical observables, it is shown that such observables are complementary to each other with respect to particular partitions unless those partitions are generating. This explains why symbolic descriptions based on an ad hoc partition of an underlying phase space description should generally be expected to be incompatible. Related approaches with different background and different objectives are discussed}, language = {en} }