A representation in the mind is useful only when it stands in for the actual object that it represents. So as an example, if a representation depicts a room and the placement of the objects in it, it is useful to reason about navigating the room.
If the representation is a spoken sentence, then it is useful to reason about the correctness of the structure (i.e. grammar) of the sentence.
If it is music or choreography then that representation is useful to understand the internal consistency of the structure. Therefore, representation is only relevant if it has utility for subsequent cognition.
Are the encodings of a representation important? Yes, only if it captures the relevant semantics of what it captures. Arabic numerals are more useful than Roman numerals.
Representations are useful when they are able to effectively represent the various other concepts that it is related to.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
