code, encode, decode |
Working Definition:
code: a shared sign system that stimulates cognition.
encode : encoding "is the name of the process by which information is taken into log-term memory and converted into a usable form" (Friedenberg & Silverman, Cognitive Science , 135)
decode: the retreival of information from long term memory.
Disciplinary Definitions
In "Encoding and Retreival of Information," define encoding as "the process of acquiring information or placing it into memory, whereas retrieval refers to the process of recovering previously encoded information." (93)
In his "Introduction" to A Theory of Semiotics, Umberto Eco has extended passages on codes 4-32 and a chapter on a "Theory of Codes" 48ff.
"One of the problems we face in dealing with codes stems from the fact that they can operate at different levels—often many differen levels at the same time." Arthur Asa Berger, Signs in Contemporary Culture, 157.The levels Berger identifies are: universal, national, regional, local, individual. He also distinguishes among: social, aesthetic, and logical codes as well as elaborated and restriscted codes (Bernstein).
Basil Bernstein develops a theory of codes from a socio-linguistic point of view in his Class, Codes and Control: Volume I Theoretical Studies towards a Sociology of Language. He argues in Volume 3, "Towards a Theory of Educational Transmissions" that their are "communication codes" that direct persons "to select a performance rule" (195).
". . . a cultural code is a conceptual system which is organized around key oppositions and equations, in which a term like 'woman' is defined in opposition to a term like 'man,' and in which each term is aligned with a cluster of symbolic attributes. In the case of 'woman' those symbolic attributes might be 'emotional,' 'pliant,' 'weak,'whereas thos associated with 'man' would be more likely to be 'rational,' 'firm,' and 'strong.' Cultural codes provide the basis for connotation." (36) [Silverman, The Subject of Semiotics 83]
Comments:
The concept of a "code" is not much employed in Cognitive Science. It is replaced by the concept of coding.
Notes
Ducrot and Todorov define a "code" as "a system of contraints" which does not "signify." (104)
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last revised:
June 13, 2007
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