AJP - Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, Vol 246, Issue 6 925-R927, Copyright © 1984 by American Physiological Society
A comment on equating information with symbol strings
M. T. Turvey and P. N. Kugler
Symbol strings are advanced as the informational basis for many biological,
physiological, and psychological phenomena. The role ascribed to them is
that of indicating or directing states of affairs. Pattee has suggested
that nature exploits information in this quasi-linguistic sense sparingly,
that symbol strings are limited in detail, and that their relation to
dynamics is one of complementation. A different, nonsymbolic view of
information that addresses how animals can guide their locomotion in
cluttered surroundings has been pursued by Gibson. It has considerable
generality: information is low-dimensional qualitative properties of
low-energy fields, lawfully generated by properties of systems and
surround. It is argued that in the absence of information in Gibson's
specificational sense, information in the indicational-injunctional sense
is ineffective, and it is suggested that perplexities about the selective
content of symbol strings may be resolved by a thoroughgoing understanding
of Gibsonian information.
