Category Archives: Cognitive Science
31 Jul Modeling Non-Random Synaptic Links
I have discussed the different meanings of “random” in “The Random Hamlet” and “That’s so Random!” in which the mathematical definition presumes there is some not yet known law that governs the phenomenon, where other definitions suggest that randomness means that the phenomenon is not governed by any law. Remember our reference to Rosenblatt’s early contributions in […]
28 Jul Patterns in the Mind
As we look for suitable solution designs for representing the knowledge and processes we humans use to communicate, we realize that we have no idea what knowledge in the brain looks like. Further, we only have relatively vague ideas about the processes that occur in the brain as we produce and comprehend words, phrases and sentences. […]
26 Jul Parallel Distributed Pattern Processing
PDP Networks We have discussed recognition processes in the brain. Connectionism, a fundamentally implicit approach to neural modeling, was championed by the parallel distributed processing (PDP) group. PDP networks use many interconnected processing elements (PEs) that, according to the PDP Group, configure themselves to match input data with “minimum conflict or discrepancy” (Rumelhart & McClelland, 1986, Vol. 2, […]
24 Jul Pattern Classification in Space
Pattern Classification Visual patterns can be recognized and classified based on prior knowledge: I see that this hairy animal has four legs and is about the same size as my dog, so I’ll assume it is (or classify it as) a dog. This may not be a correct classification, but it’s more correct than classifying it […]
22 Jul Context Collapse: Communication Without Boundaries
In social media, “Context is everything” – says Danna Boyd. And although she is completely correct, the picture is much larger than just social media. In all media, and all communication, context is essential to understanding (Video). Los Angeles Clippers Owner, Donald Sterling was stung and surprised by the fact that his recorded statements indicted him as […]
17 Jul Are you who you say you are?
Humans are capable of prolonged kindness and extreme altruistic behavior. We are also capable of aggravating selfishness and unthinkable cruelty. Different levels of each polar opposite behavior exhibit themselves in the same person – indeed, every person. I believe that context plays an important role in these phenomena: the context of one’s upbringing, ones socio-economic […]
15 Jul From Perception and Learning to Logic
Perception and Learning I am not a cognitive scientist, so all I have said in this section is based on the work of others. On the other hand, I have probably spent more time seriously studying cognition than most computer geeks, and I have tried to form my perspectives around the best of our knowledge. The […]
08 Jul Playing the Slots
Frames and More You could just throw everything into the blender and see if a nice smoothie comes out. But for some cuisine and some complex processing tasks, the blender model is unsatisfactory. With neural networks and semantic networks and concept graphs, it may be best to separate things by category, choose different blender speeds, […]
07 Jul SPARQL Fireworks
How do you get at knowledge in conceptually structured information stores such as graphs? There are multiple ways to get data and information in broad use today. The most common is Structured Query Language (SQL) which is used as the almost universal access formalism for getting, storing and manipulating data in relational databases. An emerging standard […]