Dear Dr. Lehar,
I enclose two anonymous reviews of your manuscript (99-082), "Harmonic resonance theory: An alternative to the 'neuron doctrine' paradigm of neurocomputation to address Gestalt Properties of perception." The reviewers agree that you have tackled an important and very interesting issue and that your approach has novelty and may have promise. However, both of them criticize the manuscript on the same ground, that you have not developed your approach beyond the metaphor stage. You show us examples of harmonic resonance that show us why you think that it may underlie Gestalt-like perception. But you never present the theory of perception itself. This is the main reason for my decision to reject the manuscript.
Both reviewers also comment on some other important ommissions from the paper. A and B both point out, for example, there are other approaches (Grossberg's ART, PDP models) that have some similarity to yours. They would need to be compared and contrasted with your approach. A's review quite helpfully outlines other important omissions from the discussion.
Addressing these comments will require a lot of work, most probably including developing the theory of perception. This is a tall and perhaps rather daunting order. However, I cannot invite you to submit a revision unless you can fill it.
I am sorry not to have a more positive report for you.
Sincerely,
Carol A. Fowler Associate Editor