Maley, Corey (2026) Structural Representation is Analog Representation. [Preprint]

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Abstract

Recent years have seen an increasing amount of attention devoted to the subject of structural representation. Is there one type of structural representation or many? How do they differ from other types of representation? Are they really a genuine type of representation in the first place? All good questions which I will not address directly. Instead, I argue that structural representations are nothing more than analog representations, and as such, some much needed clarity can be gained by understanding them as such. Typical analog
representations (e.g., liquid thermometers or analog clocks) are often “one-dimensional;” extending how they are analyzed into multiple dimensions elucidates the structure of more complex analog representations, such as photographs, maps, or three-dimensional models. However, this analysis applies
to structural representations without remainder. The upshot is that we can directly apply what we have learned about analog representation to our understanding of structural representation, which, if not directly answering these
recent questions, greatly adds to our theoretical resources for doing so. The analog wheel has already been invented; characterizing structural representation does not need to reinvent that wheel.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Maley, Corey cjmaley@purdue.edu 0000-0001-6221-3181
Keywords:	representation; structural representation; computation
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Neuroscience > Cognitive Neuroscience Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Computation Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Concepts and Representations
Depositing User:	Dr. Corey Maley
Date Deposited:	17 Jan 2026 12:17
Last Modified:	17 Jan 2026 12:17
Item ID:	27929
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Neuroscience > Cognitive Neuroscience Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Computation Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Concepts and Representations
Date:	2026
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/27929

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