Sensereference

Sensereference is a term used in cognitive science and philosophy to describe the process by which sensory information from the external world becomes linked to linguistic or conceptual references in the mind. It refers to the mapping from perceptual data to the objects or properties that are named or described in language and thought.

The term combines sense as the perceptual or experiential content and reference as the linguistic or mental referent. The idea is to analyze how perceptual experience provides the grounding for reference, enabling words to pick out things in the world based on what is sensed.

Theoretical approaches to sensereference include perceptual grounding, where words and concepts anchor to sensory modalities such as vision or audition; multi-modal integration, which combines information from several senses to identify referents; and the symbol grounding problem, which asks how abstract symbols obtain meaning through perceptual experience. In this view, language acquisition and use rely on direct or mediated connections between what is perceived and what is described.

In philosophy, sensereference interacts with the sense/reference distinction and with theories of perceptual content, bridging phenomenology and linguistic theory. It raises questions about whether grounding is secure across individuals, cultures, and developmental stages, and how perceptual anomalies or illusions affect reference.

Applications of sensereference appear in artificial intelligence, robotics, and education, where grounding language in perception improves understanding and interaction with the real world. Challenges include variability in perception, subjective interpretation, and the complexity of combining diverse sensory inputs into stable referents. Related topics include sense, reference, grounding, embodiment, and multimodal perception.