skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Parallel distributed processing: Implications for cognition and development. Technical report

Abstract

This paper provides a brief overview of the connectionist or parallel distributed processing framework for modeling cognitive processes, and considers the application of the connectionist framework to problems of cognitive development. Several aspects of cognitive development might result from the process of learning as it occurs in multi-layer networks. This learning process has the characteristic that it reduces the discrepancy between expected and observed events. As it does this, representations develop on hidden units which dramatically change both the way in which the network represents the environment from which it learns and the expectations that the network generates about environmental events. The learning process exhibits relatively abrupt transitions corresponding to stage shifts in cognitive development. These points are illustrated using a network that learns to anticipate which side of a balance beam will go down, based on the number of weights on each side of the fulcrum and their distance from the fulcrum on each side of the beam. The network is trained in an environment in which weight more frequently governs which side will go down. It recapitulates the states of development seen in children, as well as the stage transitions, as it learns to represent weight and distancemore » information.« less

Authors:
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Carnegie-Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh, PA (USA). Artificial Intelligence and Psychology Project
OSTI Identifier:
6860151
Report Number(s):
AD-A-219063/5/XAB; AIP-47
Resource Type:
Technical Report
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS//MATHEMATICS, COMPUTING, AND INFORMATION SCIENCE; CHILDREN; LEARNING; COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION; DATA PROCESSING; DISTANCE; DISTRIBUTED DATA PROCESSING; ENVIRONMENT; LAYERS; PARALLEL PROCESSING; PROGRESS REPORT; TRAINING; AGE GROUPS; DOCUMENT TYPES; PROCESSING; PROGRAMMING; SIMULATION; 990200* - Mathematics & Computers

Citation Formats

McClelland, J L. Parallel distributed processing: Implications for cognition and development. Technical report. United States: N. p., 1988. Web.
McClelland, J L. Parallel distributed processing: Implications for cognition and development. Technical report. United States.
McClelland, J L. 1988. "Parallel distributed processing: Implications for cognition and development. Technical report". United States.
@article{osti_6860151,
title = {Parallel distributed processing: Implications for cognition and development. Technical report},
author = {McClelland, J L},
abstractNote = {This paper provides a brief overview of the connectionist or parallel distributed processing framework for modeling cognitive processes, and considers the application of the connectionist framework to problems of cognitive development. Several aspects of cognitive development might result from the process of learning as it occurs in multi-layer networks. This learning process has the characteristic that it reduces the discrepancy between expected and observed events. As it does this, representations develop on hidden units which dramatically change both the way in which the network represents the environment from which it learns and the expectations that the network generates about environmental events. The learning process exhibits relatively abrupt transitions corresponding to stage shifts in cognitive development. These points are illustrated using a network that learns to anticipate which side of a balance beam will go down, based on the number of weights on each side of the fulcrum and their distance from the fulcrum on each side of the beam. The network is trained in an environment in which weight more frequently governs which side will go down. It recapitulates the states of development seen in children, as well as the stage transitions, as it learns to represent weight and distance information.},
doi = {},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/6860151}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Jul 11 00:00:00 EDT 1988},
month = {Mon Jul 11 00:00:00 EDT 1988}
}

Technical Report:
Other availability
Please see Document Availability for additional information on obtaining the full-text document. Library patrons may search WorldCat to identify libraries that may hold this item. Keep in mind that many technical reports are not cataloged in WorldCat.

Save / Share: