A CREATIVE COGNITION 217But the cloud is not really disorderly. By the nature of the structure of
the objects it emanates from, this changing two- dimensional mosaic of
light on the ret ina is not a random pattern. Statistical analyses of natu ral
stimuli, mentioned in chapter 6, have revealed numerous correlations
among points at vari ous levels or depths.
Just imagine any three points on a line— say, the edge of a book—as
you move around the object. Th e apparent movement of any pair of points
in space and time will be correlated (they vary together, or co- vary). But
these correlated movements will co- vary with any third point, and so on
over innumerable points, across increasing depths of co- variation. Th e
precise values of that set of par ameters will be characteristic for any
line. Curved lines, corners, edges, and myriad other features will have
diff er ent, but equally characteristic, sets of par ameters.
As described in chapter 6, it is such par ameters, not isolated stimuli or
features, that the brain is interested in. Th ey are assimilated into networks
by modifying the network connections. Th rough them, the network can
compute predictability from the onslaught of spatiotemporal change in
sensory inputs. Th is is the informational grammar through which end-
less novel forms make sense.
And that is what the concept of a line really is: an internalized set of
statistical par ameters abstracted across innumerable such experiences.
You see three light spots moving toward you; the pattern enters your
visual networks and gets pulled into the attractor comprised of those
stored par ameters. Aft er a fl urry of further activity—as described above
for odors— the whole pattern gets fi lled in as a line and passed on for
further pro cessing. Indeed, when viewed on a computer screen, such a
pattern of only three light spots quickly becomes reported by viewers
as a line.
Th e impor tant point is that the line is now a cognitive entity, over and
beyond a neural one. Th is is because it will merge with myriad other sets
of par ameters it co- varies with, at increasingly higher levels or depths. For
example, the co- variation patterns that separately defi ne sides and edges
of the book you were looking at will co- vary together at a deeper level. As
you move around it, they move together and exhibit a structure peculiar
to that object or class of objects.
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