Philosophy and Connectionist Theory

Philosophy and Connectionist Theory PDF Author: William Ramsey
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 1134755023
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 335

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Book Description
The philosophy of cognitive science has recently become one of the most exciting and fastest growing domains of philosophical inquiry and analysis. Until the early 1980s, nearly all of the models developed treated cognitive processes -- like problem solving, language comprehension, memory, and higher visual processing -- as rule-governed symbol manipulation. However, this situation has changed dramatically over the last half dozen years. In that period there has been an enormous shift of attention toward connectionist models of cognition that are inspired by the network-like architecture of the brain. Because of their unique architecture and style of processing, connectionist systems are generally regarded as radically different from the more traditional symbol manipulation models. This collection was designed to provide philosophers who have been working in the area of cognitive science with a forum for expressing their views on these recent developments. Because the symbol-manipulating paradigm has been so important to the work of contemporary philosophers, many have watched the emergence of connectionism with considerable interest. The contributors take very different stands toward connectionism, but all agree that the potential exists for a radical shift in the way many philosophers think of various aspects of cognition. Exploring this potential and other philosophical dimensions of connectionist research is the aim of this volume.

Connectionistic Problem Solving

Connectionistic Problem Solving PDF Author: HAMPSON
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1468467700
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 277

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Book Description
1. 1 The problem and the approach The model developed here, which is actually more a collection of com ponents than a single monolithic structure, traces a path from relatively low-level neural/connectionistic structures and processes to relatively high-level animal/artificial intelligence behaviors. Incremental extension of this initial path permits increasingly sophisticated representation and processing strategies, and consequently increasingly sophisticated behavior. The initial chapters develop the basic components of the sys tem at the node and network level, with the general goal of efficient category learning and representation. The later chapters are more con cerned with the problems of assembling sequences of actions in order to achieve a given goal state. The model is referred to as connectionistic rather than neural, be cause, while the basic components are neuron-like, there is only limited commitment to physiological realism. Consequently the neuron-like ele ments are referred to as "nodes" rather than "neurons". The model is directed more at the behavioral level, and at that level, numerous con cepts from animal learning theory are directly applicable to connectionis tic modeling. An attempt to actually implement these behavioral theories in a computer simulation can be quite informative, as most are only partially specified, and the gaps may be apparent only when actual ly building a functioning system. In addition, a computer implementa tion provides an improved capability to explore the strengths and limita tions of the different approaches as well as their various interactions.

Philosophy and Connectionist Theory

Philosophy and Connectionist Theory PDF Author: William Ramsey
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 1134755023
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 335

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Book Description
The philosophy of cognitive science has recently become one of the most exciting and fastest growing domains of philosophical inquiry and analysis. Until the early 1980s, nearly all of the models developed treated cognitive processes -- like problem solving, language comprehension, memory, and higher visual processing -- as rule-governed symbol manipulation. However, this situation has changed dramatically over the last half dozen years. In that period there has been an enormous shift of attention toward connectionist models of cognition that are inspired by the network-like architecture of the brain. Because of their unique architecture and style of processing, connectionist systems are generally regarded as radically different from the more traditional symbol manipulation models. This collection was designed to provide philosophers who have been working in the area of cognitive science with a forum for expressing their views on these recent developments. Because the symbol-manipulating paradigm has been so important to the work of contemporary philosophers, many have watched the emergence of connectionism with considerable interest. The contributors take very different stands toward connectionism, but all agree that the potential exists for a radical shift in the way many philosophers think of various aspects of cognition. Exploring this potential and other philosophical dimensions of connectionist research is the aim of this volume.

Evolving Connectionist Systems

Evolving Connectionist Systems PDF Author: Nikola K. Kasabov
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1846283477
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 465

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Book Description
This second edition of the must-read work in the field presents generic computational models and techniques that can be used for the development of evolving, adaptive modeling systems, as well as new trends including computational neuro-genetic modeling and quantum information processing related to evolving systems. New applications, such as autonomous robots, adaptive artificial life systems and adaptive decision support systems are also covered.

Connectionism and the Philosophy of Mind

Connectionism and the Philosophy of Mind PDF Author: T. Horgan
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 940113524X
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 484

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Book Description
This series will include monographs and collections of studies devoted to the investigation and exploration of knowledge, information and data processing systems of all kinds, no matter whether human, (other) animal, or machine. Its scope is intended to span the full range of interests from classical problems in the philosophy of mind and philosophical psychology through issues in cognitive psychology and sociobiology (concerning the mental capabilities of other species) to ideas related to artificial intelligence and to computer science. While primary emphasis will be placed upon theoretical, conceptual and epistemological aspects of these problems and domains, empirical, experimental and methodological studies will also appear from time to time. One of the most, if not the most, exciting developments within cognitive science has been the emergence of connectionism as an alternative to the computational conception of the mind that tends to dominate the discipline. In this volume, John Tienson and Terence Horgan have brought together a fine collection of stimulating studies on connectionism and its significance. As the Introduction explains, the most pressing questions concern whether or not connectionism can provide a new conception of the nature of mentality. By focusing on the similarities and differences between connectionism and other approaches to cognitive science, the chapters of this book supply valuable resources that advance our understanding of these difficult issues. J.H.F.

Connectionism and the Mind

Connectionism and the Mind PDF Author: William Bechtel
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
ISBN: 9780631207139
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 424

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Book Description
Connectionism and the Mind provides a clear and balanced introduction to connectionist networks and explores theoretical and philosophical implications. Much of this discussion from the first edition has been updated, and three new chapters have been added on the relation of connectionism to recent work on dynamical systems theory, artificial life, and cognitive neuroscience. Read two of the sample chapters on line: Connectionism and the Dynamical Approach to Cognition: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/pdf/bechtel.pdf Networks, Robots, and Artificial Life: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/pdf/bechtel2.pdf

Abductive Inference Models for Diagnostic Problem-Solving

Abductive Inference Models for Diagnostic Problem-Solving PDF Author: Yun Peng
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1441986820
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 293

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Book Description
Making a diagnosis when something goes wrong with a natural or m- made system can be difficult. In many fields, such as medicine or electr- ics, a long training period and apprenticeship are required to become a skilled diagnostician. During this time a novice diagnostician is asked to assimilate a large amount of knowledge about the class of systems to be diagnosed. In contrast, the novice is not really taught how to reason with this knowledge in arriving at a conclusion or a diagnosis, except perhaps implicitly through ease examples. This would seem to indicate that many of the essential aspects of diagnostic reasoning are a type of intuiti- based, common sense reasoning. More precisely, diagnostic reasoning can be classified as a type of inf- ence known as abductive reasoning or abduction. Abduction is defined to be a process of generating a plausible explanation for a given set of obs- vations or facts. Although mentioned in Aristotle's work, the study of f- mal aspects of abduction did not really start until about a century ago.

Turing’s Connectionism

Turing’s Connectionism PDF Author: Christof Teuscher
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9781852334758
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
Christof Teuscher revives, analyzes, and simulates Turing's ideas, applying them to different types of problems, and building and training Turing's machines using evolutionary algorithms. In a little known paper entitled 'Intelligent Machinery' Turing investigated connectionist networks, but his work was dismissed as a 'schoolboy essay'and it was left unpublished until 1968, 14 years after his death. This is not a book about today's (classical) neural networks, but about the neuron network-like structures proposed by Turing. One of its novel features is that it actually goes beyond Turing's ideas by proposing new machines. The book also contains a Foreward by B. Jack Copeland and D. Proudfoot.

A Connectionist Machine for Genetic Hillclimbing

A Connectionist Machine for Genetic Hillclimbing PDF Author: David Ackley
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461319978
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
In the "black box function optimization" problem, a search strategy is required to find an extremal point of a function without knowing the structure of the function or the range of possible function values. Solving such problems efficiently requires two abilities. On the one hand, a strategy must be capable of learning while searching: It must gather global information about the space and concentrate the search in the most promising regions. On the other hand, a strategy must be capable of sustained exploration: If a search of the most promising region does not uncover a satisfactory point, the strategy must redirect its efforts into other regions of the space. This dissertation describes a connectionist learning machine that produces a search strategy called stochastic iterated genetic hillclimb ing (SIGH). Viewed over a short period of time, SIGH displays a coarse-to-fine searching strategy, like simulated annealing and genetic algorithms. However, in SIGH the convergence process is reversible. The connectionist implementation makes it possible to diverge the search after it has converged, and to recover coarse-grained informa tion about the space that was suppressed during convergence. The successful optimization of a complex function by SIGH usually in volves a series of such converge/diverge cycles.

The Cambridge Handbook of Computational Psychology

The Cambridge Handbook of Computational Psychology PDF Author: Ron Sun
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521674107
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 767

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Book Description
A cutting-edge reference source for the interdisciplinary field of computational cognitive modeling.

Connectionism in Perspective

Connectionism in Perspective PDF Author: R. Pfeifer
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 0444598766
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 541

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Book Description
An evaluation of the merits, potential, and limits of Connectionism, this book also illustrates current research programs and recent trends.Connectionism (also known as Neural Networks) is an exciting new field which has brought together researchers from different areas such as artificial intelligence, computer science, cognitive science, neuroscience, physics, and complex dynamics. These researchers are applying the connectionist paradigm in an interdisciplinary way to the analysis and design of intelligent systems.In this book, researchers from the above-mentioned fields not only report on their most recent research results, but also describe Connectionism from the perspective of their own field, looking at issues such as: - the effects and the utility of Connectionism for their field - the potential and limitations of Connectionism - can it be combined with other approaches?