Abstract not found

The distinction between rule-based and similarity-based processes in cognition is of fundamental importance for cognitive science, and has been the focus of a large body of empirical research. However, intuitive uses of the distinction are subject to theoretical difficulties and their relation to empirical evidence is not clear. We propose a ‘core ’ distinction between ruleand similarity-based processes, in terms of the way representations of stored information are ‘matched ’ with the representation of a novel item. This explication captures the intuitively clear-cut cases of processes of each type, and resolves apparent problems with the rule/ similarity distinction. Moreover, it provides a clear target for assessing the psychological and AI literatures. We show that many lines of psychological evidence are less conclusive than sometimes assumed, but suggest that converging lines of evidence may be persuasive. We then argue that the AI literature suggests that approaches which combine rules and similarity are an important new focus for empirical work. © 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. Keywords: Similarity-based process; Rule-based process 1.

This Special Issue on Connectionist Models of Human Language Processing provides an opportunity for an appraisal both of specific connectionist models and of the status and utility of connectionist models of language in general. This introduction provides the background for the papers in the Special Issue. The development of connectionist models of language is traced, from their intellectual origins, to the state of current research. Key themes that arise throughout different areas of connectionist psycholinguistics are highlighted, and recent developments in speech processing, morphology, sentence processing, language production, and reading are described. We argue that connectionist psycholinguistics has already had a significant impact on the psychology of language, and that connectionist models are likely to have an important influence on future research. Introduction Connectionist modeling of language processing has been highly controversial. Some have argued that language proce...

. We used cascade-correlation to model human cognitive development on a well studied psychological task, the balance scale. In balance scale experiments, the child is asked to predict the outcome of placing certain numbers of equal weights at various distances to the left or right of a fulcrum. Both stage progressions and information salience effects have been found with children on this task. Cascade-correlation is a generative connectionist algorithm that constructs its own network topology as it learns. Cascade-correlation networks provided better fits to these human data than did previous models, whether rule-based or connectionist. The network model was used to generate a variety of novel predictions for psychological research. Keywords: cognitive development, balance scale, connectionist learning, cascade-correlation 1. Introduction Although connectionist network models have become well known for their ability to simulate low level perceptual, learning, and memory phenomena, it h...

Parallel distributed processing (PDP) models provide a rich set of resources for exploring issues of nature, nurture and their interaction in cognition development. I present the essential aspects of the PDP(orconnectionist) framework, and I draw parallels between the child as learner and the mechanisms of learning in connectionist systems. The remaining sections discuss some of the implications of this framework for our understanding of the acquisition of knowledge. I point outlhat many lines ofargumenllhal have typically been given in support ofnalivist approaches need to be reconsidered in the light of the characteristics of PDP models of learning and development. The first of these sections points out that connectionist models offer a dramatic advance over classical associationist approaches to learning. The second illustrates how stage-like progressions can be understood in terms of the typical learning trajectories seen in connectionist models. The third section considers the meaning and possible sources of early competence from- a PDP perspective, and the fourth considers how connectionist models may shed light on the fact that some of the structure of human behaviour appears to be imposed by the learner. In all, the chapter amounts to an argument that connectionist models allow us to see ways in which experience might lead to the rich and interesting cognitive structures and developmental progressions that have often been taken as supportive of nativist approaches.

We have examined potential dissociations between lexical and grammatical knowledge in language impairment by investigating noun plurals and plural formation inside compounds in Williams Syndrome (WS) subjects. For comparison, we also report results from studies investigating the same linguistic phenomena in children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI). We found that nouns taking regular plurals were always correctly inflected by the WS subjects, whereas they performed much worse on nouns that take irregular plurals. The WS subjects heavily overregularized the regular-s plural, and they even used the plural-s as non-head elements inside compounds, i.e. in circumstances in which unimpaired children (and adults) would typically not use regular plurals. We argue that the excessive use of the regular-s plural in WS results from an impairment of the lexical system and/or its access mechanisms. The dissociation between lexical and grammatical phenomena in WS supports the theore...

this paper. The concept of intelligent agents and innovative multi-agent architectures for pattern recognition tasks is introduced for combining and elaborating the classification hypotheses of several classifiers. The architecture of a distributed digit-recognition system dispatching recognition tasks to a set of recognizers and combining their results is presented. This concept is being developed in the iart project, where intelligent agent architectures are built for pattern recognition tasks. 1 Introduction

This article examines the relationship between environmental and cognitive structure. One of

It is claimed that there are pre-objective phenomena, which cognitive science should explain by employing the notion of non-conceptual representational content. It is argued that a match between parallel distributed processing (PDP) and non-conceptual content (NCC) not only provides a means of refuting recent criticisms of PDP as a cognitive architecture; it also provides a vehicle for NCC that is required by naturalism. A connectionist cognitive mapping algorithm is used as a case study to examine the affinities between PDP and NCC.

v Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Part I---Mental arithmetic : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 1 1.2 Part II---Multicolumn multiplication : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 2 1.3 Structure of arithmetic skills : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 3 1.4 Aims : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 3 Part I Mental arithmetic Chapter 2 Memory for arithmetic facts 6 2.1 Phenomena : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 6 2.1.1 The production task : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 7 2.1.2 Neuropsychological constraints : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 9 2.1.3 Rule based processing : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 11 2.1.4 Summary : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 12 2.2 Previous models : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 13 2.2.1 D...