Connectionism Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

proposed that cognitive theories be developed in an effort to satisfy multiple criteria and to avoid theoretical myopia. He provided two overlapping lists of 13 criteria that the human cognitive architecture would have to satisfy in order to be functional. We have distilled these into 12 criteria: flexible behavior, real-time performance, adaptive behavior, vast knowledge base, dynamic behavior, knowledge integration, natural language, learning, development, evolution, and brain realization. There would be greater theoretical progress if we evaluated theories by a broad set of criteria such as these and attended to the weaknesses such evaluations revealed. To illustrate how theories can be evaluated we apply these criteria to both classical connectionism Rumelhart & McClelland 1986b) and the ACT-R theory (Anderson & Lebiere 1998). The strengths of classical connectionism on this test derive from its intense effort in addressing empirical phenomena in such domains as language and cognitive development. Its weaknesses derive from its failure to acknowledge a symbolic level to thought. In contrast, ACT-R includes both symbolic and subsymbolic components. The strengths of the ACT-R theory derive from its tight integration of the symbolic component with the subsymbolic component. Its weaknesses largely derive from its failure, as yet, to adequately engage in intensive analyses of issues related to certain criteria on Newell's list.

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- Cognitive Science, Cognition, Hybrid Systems, Behavior

There is increasing interest in understanding the mechanisms by which effective therapies work. The cognitive neuroscience perspective presented here adds to our mechanism understanding of how empirically supported treatments for anxiety and depression work and it informs the cognitive specificity hypothesis. Basic neuroscience findings regarding synaptic transmission and experience-dependent plasticity are presented because they form the basis of learning and memory and enable a better understanding of the effects of neuroleptic drugs on the limbic system. Principles of connectionist modeling are discussed because they provide additional mechanism information. A generalization of the SO -R model into a network model is presented. A connectionist explanation of how networks transform perceptions into cognitions is provided. This information is used to better understand how placebos and nocebos work. Clinical applications are made to PTSD, anxiety, depression, and their empirically supported treatments. The cognitive specificity hypothesis is revisited from this connectionist cognitive neuroscience perspective. Mechanism information concerning the effects of drugs on cognition, depth of cognitive change, and durability of treatment effects is presented. Corollaries and conclusions follow.

- by Warren Tryon
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- Psychology, Cognitive Science, Depression, Cognition

A central puzzle for theories of choice is that people's preferences between options can be reversed by the presence of decoy options (that are not chosen) or by the presence of other irrelevant options added to the choice set. Three types of reversal effect reported in the decision-making literature, the attraction, compromise, and similarity effects, have been explained by a number of theoretical proposals. Yet a major theoretical challenge is capturing all 3 effects simultaneously. We review the range of mechanisms that have been proposed to account for decoy effects and analyze in detail 2 computational models, decision field theory (Roe, Busemeyer, & Townsend, 2001) and leaky competing accumulators (Usher & McClelland, 2004), that aim to combine several such mechanisms into an integrated account. By simulating the models, we examine differences in the ways the decoy effects are predicted. We argue that the LCA framework, which follows on Tversky's relational evaluation with loss aversion (Tversky & Kahneman, 1991), provides a more robust account, suggesting that common mechanisms are involved in both high-level decision making and perceptual choice, for which LCA was originally developed.

- by Marius Usher
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- Cognitive Science, Mathematics, Field Theory, Decision Making

A ninnable simulation architecture for working memory Is described that provides an alternative to existing models of working memory, e.g., of Atkinson & Shlffrin (1008) and Baddeley (1080). It is used to inurpret a variety of phenomena, including multiple resources, workload, chunking, sequential output, skilled and episodic memories, and stages of skill acquisition. The architecture is based on a set of modules organised into regions which communicate with each other on an innerloop of processing. A new feature of this architecture is a proposed context-storage module that temporarily stores context information in fast changing connection weights. This enables the system to expand effective working memory beyond tht traditional 7 +/* 2 items. The context storage system is able to reload modules after short-term Information decays or is displaced; in addition, it provides a means of achieving stable, robust processing under conditions of high workload.

- by Artificial Intelligence
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- Cognitive Psychology, Computer Science, Machine Learning, Connectionism
- by Thomas Shultz
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- Semantics, Cognition, Connectionism, English

Un mode`le de la relation entre la culture et le leadership est pre´sente´ dans cet article; ce mode`le est centre´ sur le traitement de l’information. Nous estimons qu’un re´seau connectionniste s’impose pour une bonne compre´hension de la faÂµon dont la culture et le leadership influencent les re´actions et la comprotement du suiveur, ce qui nous diffe´rencie des travaux ante´rieurs dans ce domaine. On examine brie`vement les structure connectionnistes en remarquant qu’il y a recouvrement entre la conceptualisation des sche´mas inclus dans ces structures et les re´flexions actuelles sur les sche´mas concernant la culture et le leadership. Ce mode`le est suffisamment souple pour expliquer les processus cognitivement efficients qui e´mergent consciemment ou subconsciemment. En outre, il peut rendre compte de la sensibilite´ a` l’information (provenant de la situation) des sche´mas du leadership et des syste`mes culturels. On traite enfin du caracte`re critique de la notion de concept de soi dans la compre´hension des processus a` travers lesquels culture et leadership interagissent pour influencer les re´action et la conduite des suiveurs.An information-processing model of the relationship between culture and leadership is developed in the present paper. In contrast to previous work in this area, we propose that a connectionist network is useful for understanding how culture and leadership affect follower reactions and behaviour. A brief discussion of connectionist architectures is provided and the overlap between the conceptualisation of schemas within such architectures and current discussions of culture and leadership schemas is noted. The present model is flexible enough to account for cognitively efficient processes that occur at either a subconscious or conscious level of awareness. Further, the model is able to account for the sensitivity of leadership schemas and cultural meaning systems to contextual information. Finally, the critical nature of the self-concept for understanding the process by which culture and leadership interact to affect follower reactions and behaviour is discussed.

- by Robert Dimitrovski
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- Psychology, Applied Psychology, Personality, Leadership

Major findings in impression formation are reviewed and modeled from a connectionist perspective. The findings are in the areas of primacy and recency in impression formation, asymmetric diagnosticity of ability-and morality-related traits, increased recall for trait-inconsistent information, assimilation and contrast in priming, and discounting of trait inferences by situational information. The majority of these phenomena are illustrated with well-known experiments and simulated with an autoassociative network architecture with linear activation update and using the delta learning algorithm for adjusting the connection weights. All of the simulations successfully reproduced the empirical findings. Moreover, the proposed model is shown to be consistent with earlier algebraic models of impression formation . The discussion centers on how our model compares to other connectionist approaches to impression formation and how it may contribute to a more parsimonious and unified theory of person perception.

- by Frank Van Overwalle
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- Psychology, Cognitive Science, Social Cognition, Connectionism

In recent times, there has been a growing interest in analyzing the relationship between language and thought from a variety of points of view to explore whether language comes before thought or thought precedes language. Accordingly, the present paper attempts at mulling over the current debates on this issue, including Chomsky’s (1975, 1983) Independent Theory, the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (1956), Piaget’s Cognitive Determinism (1952, as cited in, Chaput, 2001), Vygotsky’s (1978, 1986) Theory of Interchanging Roles, O’brien and Opie’s (2002) Radical Connectionism, and Slobin’s (1987, 1991, 2003) Thinking for Speaking Hypothesis, which recently have received a great amount of attention, among other positions. Then the pedagogical implications of the Thinking for Speaking Hypothesis for Second Language Acquisition (SLA) are presented.

- by Somayyeh Sabah
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- Psychology, Connectionism, Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

The author of this book, one soon discovers, is no impassionate researcher. Thigpen sheds tears during her interviews. She stands up emotionally for people who, as a result of not being able to read, identify themselves as shamed, degraded, left behind, ignorant, or poor. Her actions demonstrate her implicit advocacy: we should shed tears with the poor, for the poor. For her, getting connection with people is more important than other missiological methods, like good ways of telling stories. Connection trumps other missiological methodologies.

- by Jim Harries
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- Education, Orality-Literacy Studies, Connectionism, Missiology and Mission Theology

We first show that in a word-translation task, context words induce semantic interference whereas context pictures induce semantic facilitation. Experiments 2 and 3 show that this finding is not due to differences between context words and context pictures in terms of (a) relative speed of lexical activation or (b) the category level of the activated concepts. To account for our findings, we propose that conceptually-driven lexical access is confined to the selected target concept (or ''preverbal message''). A version of Starreveld and La HeijÕs (1996) connectionist model in which this proposal was implemented successfully simulated the polarity and the time course of the semantic context effects observed. In Experiment 4 the prediction that context pictures do not induce lexical context effects was tested and confirmed.

- by Deva Tohjaya
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- Psychology, Cognitive Science, Phonology, Selective Attention
- by Michael Arfken
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- Cognitive Psychology, Multiculturalism, Marxism, Practice theory

The emergence of connectionism represents a paradigm shift in science. Connectionism has its root in cognitive and computational neuroscience. Likening the brain to a computer, connectionism tries to explain human mental abilities in terms of artificial neural networks. A neural network consists of large number of nodes/units joined together to form a network of interconnections. Knowledge is distributed among these interconnections. Therefore, learning is a by-product of processing. This article deals with the concept of connectionism, what it accounts for and what it does not account for. Furthermore, a comparison between traditional symbolic view and connectionist view is presented. Finally, different approaches to connectionism are discussed.

- by Mahshad Tasnimi
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- Connectionism

† Questi appunti sono ricavati dall'introduzione a Paul Smolensky, Il connessionismo tra simboli e neuroni, Marietti, Genova, 1992, traduzione italiana di" On the proper treatment of connectionism", Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 11, 1988, e dal capitolo" Connessionismo", in S. Gensini e A. Rainone (a cura di), Filosofie della Mente. Tradizione e attualità, Carocci, Roma, 2008.

- by marcello frixione
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- Cognitive Science, Connectionist Modeling, Connectionism

— Most of the steel structures in India are made of conventional steel sections (such as angle, channel and beam sections). However, new hollow steel sections (such as square and rectangular hollow sections) are gaining popularity in recent steel constructions due to a number of advantages such as its higher strength to weight ratio, better fire resistance properties, higher radius of gyration, lesser surface area, etc. This type of hollow sections can save cost up to 30 to 50% over the conventional steel sections (Tata Steel brochure, 2012). But unlike the conventional steel sections these hollow sections do not have standard connection details available in design code or in published literature. To overcome this problem the objective of the present study was identified to develop a suitable and economic connection detail between two square hollow sections which should be capable of transmitting forces smoothly and easy to be fabricated. To achieve the above objective, a square hollow beam to square hollow column connection was selected and modeled in commercial finite element software ABAQUS. This model was analyzed for nonlinear static (pushover) analysis considering a number of connection details. Following four alternative scheme of connection details were selected for this study: (i) using end-plate, (ii) using angle section, (iii) using channel sections, and (iv) using collar plates. The base model (rectangular hollow beam welded to one face of the rectangular hollow column) is also studied for reference. The performance of the selected connection details are compared and the best performing connection details is recommended for rectangular hollow beam-to-rectangular hollow column joints. The result shows that the load carrying capacity of the joint and the maximum deformation capacity is highly sensitive to the type of connection used. Also, the location of formation of plastic hinges in the structure (which can be at joint or at beam) depends highly on the type of connection used.

It was not a cybernetician but a neoliberal economist who provided the first systematic treatise on connectionism or, as it would later be known, the paradigm of artificial neural networks. In his 1952 book The Sensory Order, Friedrich Hayek advanced a connectionist theory of the mind already far more advanced than the theory of symbolic artificial intelligence, whose birth is redundantly celebrated in 1956 with the exalted Dartmouth workshop. In this text Hayek provided a synthesis of Gestalt principles and considerations of artificial neural networks, even speculating about the possibility of a machine fulfilling a similar function of “the nervous system as an instrument of classification,” auguring what we call today a “classifier algorithm.” This article shows how Hayek’s connectionist theory of the mind was used to shore up a specific and ideological view of the market and schematically reconstructs Hayek’s line of argumentation from his economic paradigm backward to his theory of cognition. Eventually, in Hayek’s interpretation, connectionism provides a relativist cognitive paradigm that justifies the “methodological individualism” of neoliberalism.

Un modeÁ le de la relation entre la culture et le leadership est preÂ senteÂ dans cet article; ce modeÁ le est centreÂ sur le traitement de l'information. Nous estimons qu'un reÂ seau connectionniste s'impose pour une bonne compreÂ hension de la facË on dont la culture et le leadership influencent les reÂ actions et la comprotement du suiveur, ce qui nous diffeÂ rencie des travaux anteÂ rieurs dans ce domaine. On examine brieÁ vement les structure connectionnistes en remarquant qu'il y a recouvrement entre la conceptualisation des scheÂ mas inclus dans ces structures et les reÂ flexions actuelles sur les scheÂ mas concernant la culture et le leadership. Ce modeÁ le est suffisamment souple pour expliquer les processus cognitivement efficients qui eÂ mergent consciemment ou subconsciemment. En outre, il peut rendre compte de la sensibiliteÂ aÁ l'information (provenant de la situation) des scheÂ mas du leadership et des systeÁ mes culturels. On traite enfin du caracteÁ re critique de la notion de concept de soi dans la compreÂ hension des processus aÁ travers lesquels culture et leadership interagissent pour influencer les reÂ action et la conduite des suiveurs.

- by Marcus Dickson
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- Psychology, Applied Psychology, Personality, Leadership

Winter 2012 Edition 3 memory and the non-conscious ways in which we are influenced by the past does not drive a useful wedge between philosophy and the sciences. On the one hand, scientific psychology is not, either in principle or in practice, restricted to the study of implicit learning and the varieties of conditioning: indeed, the study of our rich, socially-embedded capacities to remember our personal experiences is at the heart of much current research. On the other hand, philosophers too want to understand the operations of habit memory, skill memory, and involuntary memory, and their implications for expanded notions of agency and identity.

- by John Sutton
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- Cognitive Science, Metaphysics, Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Science

This paper deals with the question: which notion of computation (if any) is essential for explaining cognition? Five answers are discussed in the paper.
1. The classicist answer: symbolic (digital) computation is required for explaining cognition.
2. The broad digital computationalist answer: digital computation broadly construed is required for explaining cognition.
3. The connectionist answer: sub-symbolic computation is required for explaining cognition.
4. The computational neuroscientist answer: neural computation (that, strictly, is neither digital nor analogue) is required for explaining cognition.
5. The extreme dynamicist answer: computation is not required for explaining cognition.
The first four answers are only accurate to a first approximation. But the “devil” is in the details. The last answer cashes in on the parenthetical “if any” in the question above. The classicist argues that cognition is symbolic computation. But digital computationalism need not be equated with classicism. Indeed, computationalism can, in principle, range from digital (and analogue) computationalism through (the weaker thesis of) generic computationalism to (the even weaker thesis of) digital (or analogue) pancomputationalism. Connectionism, which has traditionally been criticised by classicists for being non-computational, can be plausibly construed as being either analogue or digital computationalism (depending on the type of connectionist networks used). Computational neuroscience invokes the notion of neural computation that may (possibly) be interpreted as a sui generis type of computation. The extreme dynamicist argues that the time has come for a post-computational cognitive science. This paper is an attempt to shed some light on this debate by examining various conceptions and misconceptions of (particularly digital) computation.

The purpose of this research is to identify the differences in the literature at describing connectionism as a model for Second Language Acquisition. Connectionism is a psychological, cognitive and computational theory that explains how second language learning is processed in the brain by means of computational simulation. The immediate outcome of understanding connectionism is to acknowledge its powerful implications for both teachers and learners of foreign languages. In this paper some of those presumptions will be illustrated in order to extract more and deeper links between theoretical brain research and its immediate applications in real contexts of foreign
language acquisition.

Connectionism is an approach to neural-networks-based cognitive modeling that encompasses the recent deep learning movement in artificial intelligence. Connectionist models center on statistical inference within neural networks with empirically learnable parameters, which can be represented as graphical models. More recent approaches focus on learning and inference within hierarchical generative models. Contra influential and ongoing critiques, I argue in this dissertation that the connectionist approach to cognitive science possesses in principle (and, as is becoming increasingly clear, in practice) the resources to model even the most rich and distinctly human cognitive capacities, such as abstract, conceptual thought and natural language comprehension and production. Consonant with much previous philosophical work on connectionism, I argue that a core principle—that proximal representations in a vector space have similar semantic values—is the key to a successful connectionist account of the systematicity and productivity of thought, language, and other core cognitive phenomena.

- by John Sutton and +1
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- Robotics, Cognitive Science, Metaphysics, Philosophy of Mind
- by Gerard O'Brien and +1
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- Cognitive Science, Computability Theory, Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind

Scope of the book:
This book focusses on the technical concepts of deep learning and its associated branch Neural Networks for the various dimensions of image processing applications. The proposed volume intends to bring together researchers to report the latest results or progress in the development of the above-mentioned areas. Since there is a deficit of books on this specific subject matter, the editors aim to provide a common platform for researchers working in this area to exhibit their novel findings.
Topics of Interest:
This book solicits contributions, which include the fundamentals in the field of Deep Artificial Neural Networks and Image Processing supported by case studies and practical examples. Each chapter is expected to be self-contained and to cover an in-depth analysis of real life applications of neural networks to image analysis.

- by Vania V Estrela
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- Applied Mathematics, Computer Graphics, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Vision
- by Martin Fortier
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- Model Theory, Kant, Memory (Cognitive Psychology), Anthropology of Knowledge

Abstrak Pengrajin batik di Desa Trusmi Kulon memproduksi batik dengan beberapa teknik (tulis, cetak, tulis kombinasi cetak, printing). Keputusan untuk menggunakan teknik tertentu dipengaruhi oleh pengetahuan pengrajin mengenai motif, periode waktu, penjualan, pangsa pasar dan selera. Saya melihat bahwa pengetahuan menjadi landasan dalam mengambil keputusan untuk menggunakan satu teknik tertentu dalam produksinya yang dilakukan secara sadar dan penuh pertimbangan. Sehingga tulisan ini berfokus untuk membahas skema pengetahuan pengrajin batik di Desa Trusmi Kulon dalam teknologi produksi membatiknya. Skema merupakan kombinasi unsur pengetahuan dan perasaan individual yang dipakai untuk memproses informasi. Skema menentukan seorang individu ketika melakukan suatu tindakan/perilaku tertentu. Kajian ini menarik untuk disimak karena teknik berbeda-beda digunakan para pengrajin. Padahal, mereka berada dalam satu wilayah yang dapat dikatakan memiliki kesamaan universal mengenai produksi batik menggunakan teknik tulis adalah signifikan. Hasil dari penelitian menunjukkan bahwa pengetahuan dan pengalaman memang menjadi faktor yang membuat individu (pengrajin) memutuskan untuk menggunakan teknik tertentu terkait produksi batiknya namun ada pula keputusan yang disebabkan oleh hal-hal lain di luar pengetahuan tetapi tidak dijelaskan secara detail di dalam tulisan.

- by Anggun Yulia
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- Technology, Connectionism, Knowledge

Memory loss in retrograde amnesia has long been held to be larger for recent periods than for remote periods, a pattern usually referred to as the Ribot gradient. One explanation for this gradient is consolidation of long-term memories. Several computational models of such a process have been presented, and have shown how consolidation can explain characteristics of amnesia, effects of arousal on memory, and episodic memory in semantic dementia. These models have not elucidated how consolidation must be envisaged; it remains a largely hypothetical process. Here findings are reviewed that shed light on how consolidation may be implemented in the brain. Moreover, evidence is weighed that supports its existence, or supports one of its competitors as explanations of the Ribot gradient: that it results from only partial damage to the hippocampal memory system (as stated by multiple trace theory), or that it result from a sparing of semanticized memories. Consolidation theory, multiple trace theory and semantization can all handle some findings well, and others not. Conclusive evidence for or against consolidation thus remains to be found.

- by Martijn Meeter and +1
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- Marketing, Psychology, Cognitive Science, Semantics

In recent times, there has been a growing interest in analyzing the relationship between language and thought from a variety of points of view to explore whether language comes before thought or thought precedes language. Accordingly, the present paper attempts at mulling over the current debates on this issue, including Chomsky's (1975, 1983) Independent Theory, the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (1956), Piaget's Cognitive Determinism (1952, as cited in, Chaput, 2001), Vygotsky's (1978, 1986) Theory of Interchanging Roles, O'Brien and Opie's (2002) Radical Connectionism, and Slobin's (1987, 1991, 2003) Thinking for Speaking Hypothesis, which recently have received a great amount of attention, among other positions. Then the pedagogical implications of the Thinking for Speaking Hypothesis for Second Language Acquisition (SLA) are presented.

- by Academia EduSoft
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- Connectionism, Thought and Language

The development of reading skill and bases of developmental dyslexia were explored using connectionist models. Four issues were examined: the acquisition of phonological knowledge prior to reading, how this knowledge facilitates learning to read, phonological and non phonological bases of dyslexia, and effects of literacy on phonological representation. Compared with simple feedforward networks, representing phonological knowledge in an attractor network yielded improved learning and generalization. Phonological and surface forms of developmental dyslexia, which are usually attributed to impairments in distinct lexical and nonlexical processing "routes," were derived from different types of damage to the network. The results provide a computationally explicit account of many aspects of reading acquisition using connectionist principles.

- by Mark Seidenberg
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- Psychology, Cognitive Science, Phonology, Attractor Theory

By pointing to deep philosophical confusions endemic to cognitive science, Wittgenstein might seem an enemy of computational approaches. We agree (with Mills 1993) that while Wittgenstein would reject the classicist’s symbols and rules approach, his observations align well with connectionist or neural network approaches. While many connectionisms that dominated the later twentieth century could fall prey to criticisms of biological, pedagogical, and linguistic implausibility, current connectionist approaches can resolve those problems in a Wittgenstein-friendly manner. We (a) present the basics of a Vector Symbolic Architecture formalism, inspired by Smolensky (1990), and indicate how high-dimensional vectors can operate in a context-sensitive and object-independent manner in biologically plausible time scales, reflecting Wittgenstein’s notions of language-games and family resemblance; we (b) show how “soft” symbols for such a formalism can be formed with plausible learning cycles u...

- by Ross W Gayler
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- Cognitive Science, Computer Science, Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind

A dynamic object is an object whose properties change over time. A static object is an object whose properties do not change over time. Given such an idealization, the notion of 'static' lies at an extreme end of the spectrum of temporal relations between objects and properties. Indeed, modern physics tells us that no objects are truly static. Nevertheless, many of our physical, computational, and metaphysical theories turn a blind eye to the role of time, often for practical reasons. So, perhaps it is not surprising that in the philosophy of mind -where physical, computational, and metaphysical theories meet -there has been a consistent tendancy to articulate theories that consider function and time independently. As a result, contemporary theories in cognitive science consider time unsystematically (see the next section for specific examples). In this chapter, I suggest that the problem with this 'ad hocery' is that the systems we are trying to characterize are real-time systems, whose real-time performance demands principled explanation (a point on which many of these same contemporary theorists agree). After a discussion of the importance and roots of dynamics in cognitive theorizing, I describe the role of time in each of the three main approaches to cognitive science: symbolicism, connectionism and dynamicism. Subsequently, I outline a recently proposed method, the Neural Engineering Framework (NEF), that, unlike past approaches, permits a principled integration of dynamics into biologically realistic models of high-level cognition. After briefly presenting a model, BioSLIE, that demonstrates this integration using the NEF, I argue that this approach alone is in a position to properly integrate dynamics, biological realism, and high-level cognition.

- by Chris Eliasmith
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- Pharmacology, Cognitive Science, Neurology, Philosophy of Mind

The case of remembering poses a particular challenge to theories of situated cognition, and its successful treatment within
this framework will require a more dramatic integration of levels, fields, and methods than has yet been achieved. The challenge arises from the fact that memory often takes us out of the current situation: in remembering episodes or experiences in my personal
past, for example, I am mentally transported away from the social and physical setting in which I am currently embedded. Our ability
to make psychological contact with events and experiences in the past was one motivation, in classical cognitive science and cognitive psychology, for postulating inner mental representations to hold information across the temporal gap. Theorists of situated cognition thus have to show how such an apparently representation-hungry and decoupled high-level cognitive process may nonetheless be fruitfully understood as embodied, contextualized, and distributed.

- by John Sutton
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- Cognitive Science, Developmental Psychology, Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind

Traditional artificial intelligence studies generally approach the problem of representing knowledge following the so-called knowledge representation hypothesis, as formulated by Brian Smith. More recently the development of the connectionist paradigm has questioned the symbolic approach to the study of the mind bringing about a more articulated view of the problem. This article singles out five possible approaches to the problem of knowledge representation in cognitive science: compositional symbolic approaches, local non-compositional approaches, distributed non compositional approaches, cognitive subsymbolic approaches and "neural" subsymbolic approaches. In particular, in the subsymbolic cognitive approach the elements that make up the representation system are not symbols with an ascribed meaning nor do they correspond to anatomic entities at a neurological level; rather they are to be considered as "theoretical constructs" of a theory of the cognitive level which permit the deduction (in the sense of "computation") of cognitive behaviours which cannot be otherwise modelled. We consider the development of models of this kind to be essential to a computational approach to the problem of reference without hypothesizing "magical qualities" of the mind (in the sense of assuming a necessary connection between mental symbols and their referents), while remaining within a functionalist vision, in the wider sense, which does not make reference to the specific physical properties of the neural hardware.

In this paper, we explore the hypothesis that human vocabulary acquisition processes and verbal short-term memory abilities utilize a common cognitive and neural system. We begin by reviewing behavioral evidence for a shared set of processes. Next, we examine what the computational bases of such a shared system might be and how vocabulary acquisition and verbal short-term memory might be related in mechanistic terms. We examine existing computational models of vocabulary acquisition and of verbal short-term memory, concluding that they fail to adequately relate these two domains. We then propose an alternative model which accounts not only for the relationship between word learning and verbal short-term memory, but also for a wide range of phenomena in verbal short-term memory. Furthermore, this new account provides a clear statement of the relationship between the proposed system and mechanisms of language processing more generally. We then consider possible neural substrates for this cognitive system. We begin by reviewing what is known of the neural substrates of speech processing and outline a conceptual framework within which a variety of seemingly contradictory neurophysiological and neuropsychological findings can be accommodated. The linkage of the shared system for vocabulary acquisition and verbal short-term memory to neural areas specifically involved in speech processing lends further support to our functionallevel identification of the mechanisms of vocabulary acquisition and verbal shortterm memory with those of language processing. The present work thus relates vocabulary acquisition and verbal short-term memory to each other and to speech processing, at a cognitive, computational, and neural level.

- by Manal Sinno
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- Cognition, Connectionism, Vocabulary, Working Memory

Most historians of the Cognitive Revolution consider the now historic 1956 MIT IRE Conference ‘Transactions on Information Theory’ to be the conceptual origin of the revolution. It was at this conference that three of the most important papers in the emerging field of AI would be read: (i) George Miller’s 'Human memory and the storage of information' (coupled with an earlier 1955 paper 'The magic number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits on our capacity for processing information', (ii) Allen Newell & Herbert Simon’s paper 'The logic Theory Machine: A complex Information processing system', (iii) Noam Chomsky’s paper 'Three models for the description of language'. But it would not be long before splits would occur in the very defining of AI.

- by joseph galasso
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- Recursion Theory, Artificial Intelligence, Connectionism, Syntax
- by Steven Pinker
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- Psychology, Cognitive Science, Mathematics, Computer Science

During the last decades, many cognitive architectures (CAs) have been realized adopting different assumptions about the organization and the representation of their knowledge level. Some of them (e.g. SOAR [35]) adopt a classical symbolic approach, some (e.g. LEABRA[48]) are based on a purely con-nectionist model, while others (e.g. CLARION [59]) adopt a hybrid approach combining connectionist and symbolic representational levels. Additionally, some attempts (e.g. biSOAR) trying to extend the representational capacities of CAs by integrating diagrammatical representations and reasoning are also available [34]. In this paper we propose a reflection on the role that Conceptual Spaces, a framework developed by Peter Gärdenfors [24] more than fifteen years ago, can play in the current development of the Knowledge Level in Cognitive Systems and Architectures. In particular, we claim that Conceptual Spaces offer a lingua franca that allows to unify and generalize many aspects of the symbolic, sub-symbolic and diagrammatic approaches (by overcoming some of their typical problems) and to integrate them on a common ground. In doing so we extend and detail some of the arguments explored by Gärdenfors [23] for defending the need of a conceptual, intermediate, representation level between the symbolic and the sub-symbolic one. In particular we focus on the advantages offered by Conceptual Spaces (w.r.t. symbolic and sub-symbolic approaches) in dealing with the problem of compositionality of representations based on typicality traits. Additionally, we argue that Conceptual Spaces could offer a unifying framework for interpreting many kinds of diagrammatic and analogical representations. As a consequence, their adoption could also favor the integration of diagrammatical representation and reasoning in CAs.

- by Antonio Lieto and +1
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- Robotics, Cognitive Science, Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence
- by Axel Cleeremans
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- Selective Attention, Cognitive Control, Cognition, Connectionism

In this article 1 review the connectionist framework for modeling psychological processes, and I examine the role of connectionist models in empirical psychology. I illustrate how modeling can reveal the empirical implications of general principles, and I point out that the connectionist framework is particularly apt for formalizing certain proposed processing principles. The framework has led to the discovery of new classes of explanations for basic findings; it has led to unified accounts of disparate or contradictory phenomena; and it has shed light on the relevance of certain types of evidence for basic questions about the nature of the processing system. 10 1988 Academic POW. IIK

- by James L. (Jay) McClelland
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- Psychology, Cognitive Science, Mental Representation, Cognition

In this pré cis of our recent book, Semantic Cognition: A Parallel Distributed Processing Approach , we present a parallel distributed processing theory of the acquisition, representation, and use of human semantic knowledge. The theory proposes that semantic abilities arise from the flow of activation among simple, neuron-like processing units, as governed by the strengths of interconnecting weights; and that acquisition of new semantic information involves the gradual adjustment of weights in the system in response to experience. These simple ideas explain a wide range of empirical phenomena from studies of categorization, lexical acquisition, and disordered semantic cognition. In this pré cis we focus on phenomena central to the reaction against similarity-based theories that arose in the 1980s and that subsequently motivated the "theory-theory" approach to semantic knowledge. Specifically, we consider (1) how concepts differentiate in early development, (2) why some groupings of items seem to form "good" or coherent categories while others do not, (3) why different properties seem central or important to different concepts, (4) why children and adults sometimes attest to beliefs that seem to contradict their direct experience, (5) how concepts reorganize between the ages of 4 and 10, and (6) the relationship between causal knowledge and semantic knowledge. The explanations our theory offers for these phenomena are illustrated with reference to a simple feedforward connectionist model. The relationships between this simple model, the broader theory, and more general issues in cognitive science are discussed.

- by Alessandro Treves
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- Cognitive Science, Semantics, Cognitive development, Cognition

In this article, I explore how connectionism might expand its role in second language acquisition (SLA) theory by showing how some symbolic models of bilingual and second language lexical memory can be reduced to a biologically realistic (i.e., neurally plausible) connectionist model. This integration or hybridization of the two models follows the principles of what philosophers of science call intertheoretic reduction. Such a reduction serves two important purposes: It expands the explanatory scope of the symbolic models and it explains how some features of these models can actually emerge through learning in neural systems. To this end, I present a connectionist simulation of experimental data and show both the general feasibility of such a reduction and the specific manner in which the salient phenomenological distinction between form and meaning may be an emergent product of cortical memory processes. I argue this intertheoretic reduction of the symbolic to the neural serves an important goal of SLA, as these neural models can provide the theory of learning lacking in symbolic models of SLA.

- by Robert Nelson
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- Cognitive Psychology, Cognitive Science, Connectionism, Lexicon

How is complex sequential material acquired, processed, and represented when there is no intention to learn? Two experiments exploring a choice reaction time task are reported. Unknown to Ss, successive stimuli followed a sequence derived from a "noisy" finite-state grammar. After considerable practice (60,000 exposures) with Experiment 1, Ss acquired a complex body of procedural knowledge about the sequential structure of the material. Experiment 2 was an attempt to identify limits on Ss ability to encode the temporal context by using more distant contingencies that spanned irrelevant material. Taken together, the results indicate that Ss become increasingly sensitive to the temporal context set by previous elements of the sequence, up to 3 elements. Responses are also affected by priming effects from recent trials. A connectionist model that incorporates sensitivity to the sequential structure and to priming effects is shown to capture key aspects of both acquisition and processing and to account for the interaction between attention and sequence structure reported by .

- by James L. (Jay) McClelland
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- Psychology, Cognitive Science, Implicit learning, Cognition

Steel connections:1. CONNECTIONS IN STEEL STRUCTURES
2.  Connections are structural elements used for joining different members of a structural steel frame work.  Steel Structure is an assemblage of different member such as “BEAMS,COLUMNS” which are connected to one other, usually at member ends fastners,so that it shows a single composite unit.3.  Bolts  Weld ,4.  Connecting Plates  Connecting Angles, 5.  On the Basis of Connecting Medium.  According to the type of internal forces.  According to the type of structural Elements  According to the type of members joining, 6.  Riveted Connections  Bolted Connections, 7.  Welded Connections  Bolted-Welded Connections, 8.  Used for very long time.  Made up of: Round Ductile steel bar called shank. A head at one end The length of the rivet should sufficient to form the second head.  Design - very similar to bearing type of bolted connection.
9.  Heating of the rivet  Inserting it to an oversize hole pressure to the head.  Squeezing the plain End by Pneumatic driver Round head.  On Cooling Reduces in Length–Clamping Force
10.  The introduction of high strength structural bolts.  The labour costs associated with large riveting crews  The cost involved in careful inspection and removal of poorly installed rivets.  The high level of noise associated with driving rivets., 11.  Fastened Together primarily by Bolts.  Bolts may be loaded in: Tension Shear Both Tension & Shear  Threads of bolts under shear force: Excluded - Increased strength Included - Decreased stregth.
12.  Bearing type bolts  High strength friction grip bolts (HSFG) , 13.  The most common type is bearing bolts in clearance holes, often referred to as 1. Black Bolts  Ordinary, unfinished, rough, or common bolts.  Least Expensive  Primarily - Light structures under static load such as small trusses, purlins etc, 14. 2. Turned Bolts  Similar to unfinished bolts.  Shanks - Hexagonal Rods  Primarily - Light structures under static load such as small trusses, purlins etc  Expensive – Limited use – Structures with no Slippage Connections, 15. 3. Ribbed Bolts • Round head similar to Rivets. • Raised ribs parallel to the shank. • Actual Diameter - slightly Larger than the hole • Tightly fit into the hole. • Popular - Economical in Material & Installation, 16.  Uses when bearing type bolts slips under shear  High strength bolts (8G or 10K grade) Pre-tensioned against the plates to be bolted together so that contact pressure developed between the plates being joined  Prevents relative slip when extra shear is applied  Higher Shear Resistance., 17. Advantages 1. The bolting operation is very silent 2. Bolting is a cold process hence there is no risk of fire 3. Bolting operation is more quicker than riveting. 4. Less man power is required in making the connections. Disadvantages 1. If subjected to vibratory loads, results in reduction in strength get loosened. 2. Unfinished bolts have lesser strength because of non uniform diameter
18.  whose components are joined together primarily by welds. Welding Notations were developed by American Welding Society (AWS)., 19. • Groove ( More reliable than others)  Fillet (Mostly used, Weaker than groove and others)  Plug (expensive – poor transmission of tensile forces)  Slot (expensive - poor transmission of tensile forces)  Plug and Slot welds – stitch different parts of members together.
20.  Horizontal  Vertical  Overhead  Flat
21.  Economical – Cost of materials and labors.  Efficiency is 100% as compared to rivets (75- 90%)  Fabrication of Complex Structures – Easy – like Circular Steel pipes.  Provides Rigid Joints – Modern Practice is of Rigid Joints.,22.  No provision for expansion or contraction therefore greater chances of cracking.  Uneven heating and cooling - member may distort - may result in additional stresses.  Inspection is difficult and more costlier than rivets
23.  Most connections are Shop Welded and Field Bolted types.  More Cost Effective  Better Strength & Ductility characteristics –Fully welded.
24.  Shear (semi rigid, simple) connections  Moment (rigid) connections
25.  Allows the beam end to rotate without a significant restraint.  Transfers shear out of beam  Most Common Types: Double clip Shear End Plate Fin Plate
26.  Designed to resist both Moment and Shear.  Often referred - rigid or fully restrained connections • Provide full continuity between the connected members • Designed to carry the full factored moments.  Principal Reason - buildings has to resist the effect of lateral forces such as wind and earthquake.
27. Bolted splice Moment Connection Field Bolted Moment Connection, 28.  Single plate angle Connections  Double web angle connections  Top and seated angle connections  Seated beam connections
29. Two Step Process  A plate is welded to secondary section (beam)  An Angle is welded to Primary Section (column or Beam)  single shear plate welded to secondary beam and bolted to Primary beam or column.
30.  Two angles welded or shop bolted to the web of a secondary beam.  After erection the angles are bolted or site welded to the primary member (beam or column).
31.  Generally used in case of moment connections.  Two angles are provided at top and bottom of the beam to resist moment.  Generally used for lesser moments where heavy loads are not acting
32.  Generally used in case of shear connections.  A seating angle - at bottom of secondary beam - shop welded to the primary member.  Seating angle resists vertical shear coming from the beam.
33.  Beam to beam connections  Column to column connections (column splices)  Beam to Column Connections  Column Base Plate Connections
34. Two Types  Primary Beam to Secondary Beam Connection  Beam Splice
35.  Connects column to column.  Column splice comes under this category.  Used to connect column sections of different sizes.  Splices - designed for both moment and shear unless intended to utilize the splices as internal hinges.
36.  Connects Beam to column.  Very Common  A wide range of different types are used Fin Plates End Plates Web or Flange Cleats Hunched Connections
37.  Beams are normally attached using two or more bolts through the web. End plate connections  single plate welded to the end of the beams  Bolted to the column flange or web - two or bolts pair. Fin plate connections  Single Plate welded to the Column.  Beams are normally attached using two or more bolts through the web.
38.  Steel plates placed at the bottom of Columns.  Function - to transmit column loads to the concrete pedestal.  The design of a column base plate: determining the size of the plate. determining the thickness of the plate
39.  A layer of grout should be placed between the base plate and its support for the purpose of leveling.  Anchor bolts should be provided to stabilize the column during erection or to prevent uplift.
40.  R Usually cost of fabrication and erection constitute as high as 50% of the total cost of steel structures, per tones of material used
41. BY NAVEEN ANKUR SWARNAKAR & AJEET SHARMA

- by Barbara Von Eckardt
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- Connectionism, Propositional Attitudes

Los modelos conexionistas han enfrentado diversas críticas sobre si son, o no, buenos modelos de la cognición. Una de las primeras surgió a finales de los ochenta, cuando las RNA empezaban a popularizarse, y fue esgrimida por Jerry Fodor y Zenon Pylyshyn en su texto Connectionism and Cognitive Architecture: A Critical Analysis, donde se acusaba a los modelos conexionistas de no poder cumplir una de las condiciones necesarias para ser un buen modelo de la cognición: ser sistemáticos.
El propósito de esta investigación es argumentar que los modelos conexionistas son potenciales buenos modelos de la cognición, centrándonos en cómo se podría dar cuenta de la sistematicidad desde esta perspectiva al revisar la objeción de Fodor y compañía y contestándola punto a punto.