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Extension of grounding mechanism for abstract words: computational methods insights

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Abstract

The attempts to model cognitive phenomena effectively have split the research community in two paradigms: symbolic and connectionist. The extension of grounding phenomenon for abstract words is very important for social interactions of cognitive robots in real scenarios. This paper reviews the strength of symbolic and connectionist methods to address the abstract word grounding problem in cognitive robots. In particular, the presented work is focused on designing and simulating cognitive robotics model to achieve a grounding mechanism for abstract words by using the semantic network approach, as well as examining the utility of connectionist computation for the same problem. Two neuro-robotics models based on feed forward neural network and recurrent neural network are presented to see the pros and cons of connectionist approach. The simulation results and review of attributes of these methods reveal that the proposed symbolic model offers the solution to the problem of grounding abstract words with attributes like high data storage capacity with recall accuracy, structural integrity and temporal sequence handling. Whereas, connectionist computation based solutions give more natural solution to this problem with some shortcomings that include combinatorial ambiguity, low storage capacity and structural rigidity. The presented results are not only important for the advancement in communication system of cognitive robot, also provide evidence for embodied nature of abstract language.

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Acknowledgements

The author Nadia Rasheed is thankful to Pakistani Government (Higher Education Commission HEC) for the scholarship supporting her doctoral study, and to Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) for the state of the art laboratory.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai, Johor Bahru, Malaysia

    Nadia Rasheed & Shamsudin H. M. Amin

  2. Department of Computer Systems Engineering, University College of Engineering and Technology (UCE&T), The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur, Pakistan

    Nadia Rasheed

  3. NED University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi, Pakistan

    Umbrin Sultana

  4. Department of Electrical Engineering, Government College University Faisalabad, Faisalabad, 38000, Pakistan

    Abdul Rauf Bhatti

  5. Department of Computer Science and IT, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur, Pakistan

    Mamoona N. Asghar

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  1. Nadia Rasheed
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Correspondence to Nadia Rasheed.

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Rasheed, N., Amin, S.H.M., Sultana, U. et al. Extension of grounding mechanism for abstract words: computational methods insights. Artif Intell Rev 50, 467–494 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10462-017-9608-9

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