LANGUAGE AND VISION - A SINGLE PERCEPTUAL MECHANISM

Independent work on cognitive models of visual perception and of perce ption of lexical items reveals a common framework underlying the two s ets of cognitive mechanisms posited. From these two classes of model - one visual and the other linguistic - a unifying structure has been e xtracted. The integrated model is presented, discussed, and some gener al implications for the notion of unified theories of visual and lingu istic perception are considered. In particular, we are able to demonst rate a similar structuring of contextual, or top-down, information, an d a similar pattern of interplay between serial and parallel processes as well as between top-down and bottom-up information. In addition, s everal common problems, such as the role of 'value' parameters in perc eption, are identified.