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Books in Cognitive science

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11-20 of 33 results in All results

Neuromimetic Semantics

  • 1st Edition
  • May 8, 2004
  • Harry Howard
  • English
  • eBook
    9 7 8 - 0 - 0 8 - 0 5 3 7 4 4 - 3
This book attempts to marry truth-conditional semantics with cognitive linguistics in the church of computational neuroscience. To this end, it examines the truth-conditional meanings of coordinators, quantifiers, and collective predicates as neurophysiological phenomena that are amenable to a neurocomputational analysis. Drawing inspiration from work on visual processing, and especially the simple/complex cell distinction in early vision (V1), we claim that a similar two-layer architecture is sufficient to learn the truth-conditional meanings of the logical coordinators and logical quantifiers. As a prerequisite, much discussion is given over to what a neurologically plausible representation of the meanings of these items would look like. We eventually settle on a representation in terms of correlation, so that, for instance, the semantic input to the universal operators (e.g. and, all)is represented as maximally correlated, while the semantic input to the universal negative operators (e.g. nor, no)is represented as maximally anticorrelated. On the basis this representation, the hypothesis can be offered that the function of the logical operators is to extract an invariant feature from natural situations, that of degree of correlation between parts of the situation. This result sets up an elegant formal analogy to recent models of visual processing, which argue that the function of early vision is to reduce the redundancy inherent in natural images. Computational simulations are designed in which the logical operators are learned by associating their phonological form with some degree of correlation in the inputs, so that the overall function of the system is as a simple kind of pattern recognition. Several learning rules are assayed, especially those of the Hebbian sort, which are the ones with the most neurological support. Learning vector quantization (LVQ) is shown to be a perspicuous and efficient means of learning the patterns that are of interest. We draw a formal parallelism between the initial, competitive layer of LVQ and the simple cell layer in V1, and between the final, linear layer of LVQ and the complex cell layer in V1, in that the initial layers are both selective, while the final layers both generalize. It is also shown how the representations argued for can be used to draw the traditionally-recognized inferences arising from coordination and quantification, and why the inference of subalternacy breaks down for collective predicates. Finally, the analogies between early vision and the logical operators allow us to advance the claim of cognitive linguistics that language is not processed by proprietary algorithms, but rather by algorithms that are general to the entire brain. Thus in the debate between objectivist and experiential metaphysics, this book falls squarely into the camp of the latter. Yet it does so by means of a rigorous formal, mathematical, and neurological exposition – in contradiction of the experiential claim that formal analysis has no place in the understanding of cognition. To make our own counter-claim as explicit as possible, we present a sketch of the LVQ structure in terms of mereotopology, in which the initial layer of the network performs topological operations, while the final layer performs mereological operations. The book is meant to be self-contained, in the sense that it does not assume any prior knowledge of any of the many areas that are touched upon. It therefore contains mini-summaries of biological visual processing, especially the retinocortical and ventral /what?/ parvocellular pathways; computational models of neural signaling, and in particular the reduction of the Hodgkin-Huxley equations to the connectionist and integrate-and-fire neurons; Hebbian learning rules and the elaboration of learning vector quantization; the linguistic pathway in the left hemisphere; memory and the hippocampus; truth-conditional vs. image-schematic semantics; objectivist vs. experiential metaphysics; and mereotopology. All of the simulations are implemented in MATLAB, and the code is available from the book’s website.

Agenda Relevance: A Study in Formal Pragmatics

  • 1st Edition
  • Volume 1
  • May 29, 2003
  • Dov M. Gabbay + 1 more
  • English
  • eBook
    9 7 8 - 0 - 0 8 - 0 5 2 6 8 7 - 4
Agenda Relevance is the first volume in the authors' omnibus investigation ofthe logic of practical reasoning, under the collective title, A Practical Logicof Cognitive Systems. In this highly original approach, practical reasoning isidentified as reasoning performed with comparatively few cognitive assets,including resources such as information, time and computational capacity. Unlikewhat is proposed in optimization models of human cognition, a practical reasonerlacks perfect information, boundless time and unconstrained access tocomputational complexity. The practical reasoner is therefore obliged to be acognitive economizer and to achieve his cognitive ends with considerableefficiency. Accordingly, the practical reasoner avails himself of variousscarce-resource compensation strategies. He also possesses neurocognitivetraits that abet him in his reasoning tasks. Prominent among these is thepractical agent's striking (though not perfect) adeptness at evading irrelevantinformation and staying on task. On the approach taken here, irrelevancies areimpediments to the attainment of cognitive ends. Thus, in its most basic sense,relevant information is cognitively helpful information. Information can then besaid to be relevant for a practical reasoner to the extent that it advances orcloses some cognitive agenda of his. The book explores this idea with aconceptual detail and nuance not seen the standard semantic, probabilistic andpragmatic approaches to relevance; but wherever possible, the authors seek tointegrate alternative conceptions rather than reject them outright. A furtherattraction of the agenda-relevance approach is the extent to which its principalconceptual findings lend themselves to technically sophisticated re-expressionin formal models that marshal the resources of time and action logics andlabel led deductive systems. Agenda Relevance is necessary reading for researchers in logic, beliefdynamics, computer science, AI, psychology and neuroscience, linguistics,argumentation theory, and legal reasoning and forensic science, and will repaystudy by graduate students and senior undergraduates in these same fields.Key features:• relevance• action and agendas• practical reasoning• belief dynamics• non-classical logics• labelled deductive systems

Handbook of the Logic of Argument and Inference

  • 1st Edition
  • Volume 1
  • September 11, 2002
  • R.H. Johnson + 3 more
  • English
  • eBook
    9 7 8 - 0 - 0 8 - 0 5 3 2 9 1 - 2
The Handbook of the Logic of Argument and Inference is an authoritative reference work in a single volume, designed for the attention of senior undergraduates, graduate students and researchers in all the leading research areas concerned with the logic of practical argument and inference. After an introductory chapter, the role of standard logics is surveyed in two chapters. These chapters can serve as a mini-course for interested readers, in deductive and inductive logic, or as a refresher. Then follow two chapters of criticism; one the internal critique and the other the empirical critique. The first deals with objections to standard logics (as theories of argument and inference) arising from the research programme in philosophical logic. The second canvasses criticisms arising from work in cognitive and experimental psychology. The next five chapters deal with developments in dialogue logic, interrogative logic, informal logic, probability logic and artificial intelligence. The last chapter surveys formal approaches to practical reasoning and anticipates possible future developments. Taken as a whole the Handbook is a single-volume indication of the present state of the logic of argument and inference at its conceptual and theoretical best. Future editions will periodically incorporate significant new developments.

Animal Cognition and Behavior

  • 1st Edition
  • Volume 13
  • April 1, 2000
  • R.L. Mellgren
  • English
  • eBook
    9 7 8 - 0 - 0 8 - 0 8 6 6 6 7 - 3
Contributed chapters by psychologists and behavioral biologists provide a broad coverage of animal behavior, and governing brain processes. Topics covered include: foraging behavior and strategies, economics and psychology, memory of events and space, time perception, expectancies, food preferences and diet selection, behavior variability and the concept of mind.The volume is designed to satisfy an intderdisciplinary audience, embracing the behavioristic tradition, biological and physiological approaches, and evolutionary theory as philosophical underpinnings to the chapters. Also achieved in this work is a good balance between empirical results and theory.

Quantitative Psychology

  • 1st Edition
  • Volume 15
  • April 1, 2000
  • M. Nowakowska
  • English
  • eBook
    9 7 8 - 0 - 0 8 - 0 8 6 6 6 9 - 7
Examining selected statistical and modeling approaches in psychology, the book concentrates on the topics of mental test theory and theory of measurement. The main objective is not only to present a critical view of the approaches suggested up until now, but also their reinterpretation, extension and enrichment by new theories and concepts, for example, formal theories of semiotics and knowledge, and a unifying theory of actions.The book also shows a relation between test theory and the foundations of fuzzy set theory. It presents new models of measurement tools and new measurement theories of concepts such as objective and subjective time, risk or utility, and discusses the cognitive foundations of these theories, namely the theory of perception and observability.

A Theory of Cognitive Aging

  • 1st Edition
  • Volume 28
  • April 1, 2000
  • T. Salthouse
  • English
  • eBook
    9 7 8 - 0 - 0 8 - 0 8 6 6 8 2 - 6
Over a half-century of research has documented the fact that people of different ages perform at different levels on a variety of tests of cognitive functioning, and yet there are still no comprehensive theories to account for these phenomena. A Theory of Cognitive Aging is intended to begin intellectual discussion in this area by identifying major issues of controversy, and proposing a particular theoretical interpretation based on the notion that the rate of processing information slows down with increased age. Although still quite preliminary, the theoretical perspective is demonstrated to provide a plausible account for age-related differences in functioning on measures of memory, spatial ability and reasoning. The book has four aims: - To advocate a more explicitly theoretical approach to research in the area of cognitive aging. - To outline three important dimensions along which it is argued that any theory of cognitive aging phenomena must take a position. - To evaluate empirical evidence relevant to specific positions along those dimensions. - To summarize the major concepts of the current theory, and to describe its application to selected findings in the research literature.

Cognitive Science

  • 1st Edition
  • September 22, 1999
  • Benjamin Martin Bly + 1 more
  • English
  • eBook
    9 7 8 - 0 - 0 8 - 0 4 8 8 5 0 - 9
The interdisciplinary field of cognitive science brings together elements of cognitive psychology, mathematics, perception, and linguistics. Focusing on the main areas of exploration in this field today, Cognitive Science presents comprehensive overviews of research findings and discusses new cross-over areas of interest. Contributors represent the most senior and well-established names in the field. This volume serves as a high-level introduction, with sufficient breadth to be a graduate-level text, and enough depth to be a valued reference source to researchers.

Visual Attention and Cognition

  • 1st Edition
  • Volume 116
  • September 23, 1996
  • W.H. Zangemeister + 2 more
  • English
  • eBook
    9 7 8 - 0 - 0 8 - 0 5 4 5 0 3 - 5
The goal of this book is to put together some of the main interdisciplinary aspects that play a role in visual attention and cognition. The book is aimed at researchers and students with interdisciplinary interest. In the first chapter a general discussion of the influential scanpath theory and its implications for human and robot vision is presented. Subsequently, four characteristic aspects of the general theme are dealt with in topical chapters, each of which presents some of the different viewpoints of the various disciplines involved. They cover neuropsychology, clinical neuroscience, modeling, and applications. Each of the chapters opens with a synopsis tying together the individual contributions.

Artificial Intelligence

  • 1st Edition
  • June 10, 1996
  • Margaret A. Boden
  • English
  • eBook
    9 7 8 - 0 - 0 8 - 0 5 2 7 5 9 - 8
Artificial Intelligence is the study of how to build or program computers to enable them to do what minds can do. This volume discusses the ways in which computational ideas and computer modeling can aid our understanding of human and animal minds. Major theoretical approaches are outlined, as well as some promising recent developments. Fundamental philosophical questions are discussed along with topics such as: the differences between symbolic and connectionist AI, planning and problem solving, knowledge representation, learning, expert systems, vision, natural language, creativity, and human-computer interaction. This volume is suitable for any psychologist, philosopher, or computer scientist wanting to know the current state of the art in this area of cognitive science.

Cognitive Technology

  • 1st Edition
  • Volume 113
  • December 1, 1995
  • J.L. Mey + 1 more
  • English
  • eBook
    9 7 8 - 0 - 0 8 - 0 5 2 9 3 1 - 8
In this book the editors have gathered a number of contributions by persons who have been working on problems of Cognitive Technology (CT). The present collection initiates explorations of the human mind via the technologies the mind produces. These explorations take as their point of departure the question What happens when humans produce new technologies? Two interdependent perspectives from which such a production can be approached are adopted:• How and why constructs that have their origins in human mental life are embodied in physical environments when people fabricate their habitat, even to the point of those constructs becoming that very habitat• How and why these fabricated habitats affect, and feed back into, human mental life.The aim of the CT research programme is to determine, in general, which technologies, and in particular, which interactive computer-based technologies, are humane with respect to the cognitive development and evolutionary adaptation of their end users. But what does it really mean to be humane in a technological world? To shed light on this central issue other pertinent questions are raised, e.g.• Why are human minds externalised, i.e., what purpose does the process of externalisation serve?• What can we learn about the human mind by studying how it externalises itself? • How does the use of externalised mental constructs (the objects we call 'tools') change people fundamentally?• To what extent does human interaction with technology serve as an amplification of human cognition, and to what extent does it lead to a atrophy of the human mind?The book calls for a reflection on what a tool is. Strong parallels between CT and environmentalism are drawn: both are seen as trends having originated in our need to understand how we manipulate, by means of the tools we have created, our natural habitat consisting of, on the one hand, the cognitive environment which generates thought and determines action, and on the other hand, the physical environment in which thought and action are realised. Both trends endeavour to protect the human habitat from the unwanted or uncontrolled impact of technology, and are ultimately concerned with the ethics and aesthetics of tool design and tool use.Among the topics selected by the contributors to the book, the following themes emerge (the list is not exhaustive): using technology to empower the cognitively impaired; the ethics versus aesthetics of technology; the externalisation of emotive and affective life and its special dialectic ('mirror') effects; creativity enhancement: cognitive space, problem tractability; externalisation of sensory life and mental imagery; the engineering and modelling aspects of externalised life; externalised communication channels and inner dialogue; externalised learning protocols; relevance analysis as a theoretical framework for cognitive technology.