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| 2. |
- Gärdenfors, Peter, et al.
(author)
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Understanding by experiencing patterns
- 2008
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In: A Smorgasbord of Cognitive Science. - 9789157805324
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Book chapter (pop. science, debate, etc.)abstract
- This chapter focuses on the cognitive and emotional mechanisms of understanding. We propose that understanding consists in seeing or, more generally, experiencing a pattern. Patterns can be experienced by all sensory modalities and in abstract thinking, but here the focus is primarily on the visual modality. We discuss how understanding by experiencing patterns can be achieved in learning processes. The goal of education should be that students understand the material they study. We propose that this is achieved by helping them to discover patterns that they cannot find on their own. We also highlight the role of emotions in understanding, especially the subjective experience of an aha-feeling, which occurs when a pattern suddenly falls into place. Finally, we present some educational techniques such as visualizations, simulations, and intelligent tutoring systems that can be used for pointing out salient features in a pattern.
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Gärdenfors, Peter, et al.
(author)
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The Archaeology of Teaching and the Evolution of Homo docens
- 2017
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In: Current Anthropology. - : University of Chicago Press. - 0011-3204 .- 1537-5382. ; 58:2, s. 188-201
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Teaching is present in all human societies, while within other species it is very limited. Something happened during the evolution of Homo sapiens that also made us Homo docens—the teaching animal. Based on discussions of animal and hominin learning, we analyze the evolution of intentional teaching by a series of levels that require increasing capacities of mind reading and communication on the part of the teacher and the learner. The levels of teaching are (1) intentional evaluative feedback, (2) drawing attention, (3) demonstrating, (4) communicating concepts, and (5) explaining relations between concepts. We suggest that level after level has been added during the evolution of teaching. We demonstrate how different technologies depend on increasing sophistication in the levels of cognition and communication required for teaching them. As regards the archaeological evidence for the different levels, we argue that stable transmission of the Oldowan technology requires at least teaching by demonstration and that learning the late Acheulean hand-axe technology requires at least communicating concepts. We conclude that H. docens preceded H. sapiens.
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| 5. |
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A Smorgasbord of Cognitive Science
- 2008
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Editorial collection (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This book is intended as an introduction to the breadth of current research in cognitive science, with the research at Lund University Cognitive Science as our sample. The result is a smorgasbord for readers with some background in the neighbouring disciplines. Through the chapters we will follow some of the important cross-disciplinary issues in cognitive science. One is how the external world is represented, from cognitive maps in rats, to drawings made to enhance communication, or the organization of semantic knowledge. Another is to what extent such representations really are used: the world is often its own best model in areas from robotics to choice, and several chapters illustrate that even communication (despite its dependence on representations) is firmly situated in and constrained by its surroundings. In addition, many chapters emphasize the essentially dynamic relationship between mind and environment, in areas from development to interaction and learning. A third thread is how research concerning other animals= cognitive capacities, from pigeons to chimpanzees, has inspired research on human cognition, and how this comparative approach can be made to incorporate also non-animate fellow beings, such as robots and virtual characters. In sum, the book contains most of the areas we think are important in cognitive science today, and we hope that it will be of use for beginning researchers and advanced students in the area. Its production is part of the celebrations of Lund University Cognitive Science’s 20th anniversary. Our group hosts researchers with backgrounds in psychology, philosophy, computer science, linguistics, computational neuroscience, education, etc., and all of us have a multidisciplinary education. We encourage you to visit our web pages at www.lucs.lu.se to learn more about the activities of the group.
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| 6. |
- Anikin, Andrey, et al.
(author)
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Synesthetic Associations Between Voice and Gestures in Preverbal Infants : Weak Effects and Methodological Concerns
- 2018
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Other publication (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Adult humans spontaneously associate visual features, such as size and direction of movement, with phonetic properties like vowel quality and auditory pitch. A number of recent studies have claimed that looking time in preverbal infants reveals the same associations, which would indicate that some cross-modal correspondences are the result of perceptual biases. Here we tested 30 infants of age 7-13 months, who were exposed to pairs of audiovisual stimuli presented first sequentially and then side by side. The stimuli consisted of a visual object (computer-animated ball or filmed human hand) moving sinusoidally, vertically, or in a U-shape and accompanied by a sliding voice-like tone. Sequential presentation revealed no preference for either audiovisual synchrony or synesthetic congruency, while side-by-side presentation revealed a small preference for incongruent stimuli. The effect of congruency was similar for the animated ball and filmed human hand. These findings extend the results of previous research on pitch-motion synesthesia in preverbal infants, which used animations and sliding whistles, to more ecologically relevant stimuli such as voice and gestures. If infants and adults share the same preferences for non-arbitrary mappings between manual gestures and intonation, this could indicate that cross-modal correspondences facilitate language acquisition. On the other hand, a critical survey of the field revealed that previous studies of audiovisual cross-modal correspondences in infants suffer from replication failures due to poor robustness of the reported effect with respect to experimental stimuli and testing procedure. We therefore argue that the research on cross-modal correspondences in infants would profit from using alternative testing methods in addition to preferential looking and call for replication of previously reported congruency effects.
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| 7. |
- Balkenius, Christian, et al.
(author)
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Anticipation requires adaptation
- 2008
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In: Behavioral and Brain Sciences. - 1469-1825. ; 31:2, s. 199-199
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Journal article (other academic/artistic)abstract
- To successfully interact with a dynamic world, our actions must be guided by a continuously changing anticipated future. Such anticipations must be tuned to the processing delays in the nervous system as well as to the slowness of the body, something that requires constant adaptation of the predictive mechanisms, which in turn require that sensory information be processed at different time-scales.
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| 8. |
- Balkenius, Christian, et al.
(author)
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Artificiell intelligens
- 2011
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In: Nationalencyclopedin.
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Book chapter (pop. science, debate, etc.)
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| 9. |
- Balkenius, Christian, et al.
(author)
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The Missing Link Between Memory and Reinforcement Learning
- 2020
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In: Frontiers in Psychology. - : Frontiers Media SA. - 1664-1078. ; 11
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Reinforcement learning systems usually assume that a value function is defined over all states (or state-action pairs) that can immediately give the value of a particular state or action. These values are used by a selection mechanism to decide which action to take. In contrast, when humans and animals make decisions, they collect evidence for different alternatives over time and take action only when sufficient evidence has been accumulated. We have previously developed a model of memory processing that includes semantic, episodic and working memory in a comprehensive architecture. Here, we describe how this memory mechanism can support decision making when the alternatives cannot be evaluated based on immediate sensory information alone. Instead we first imagine, and then evaluate a possible future that will result from choosing one of the alternatives. Here we present an extended model that can be used as a model for decision making that depends on accumulating evidence over time, whether that information comes from the sequential attention to different sensory properties or from internal simulation of the consequences of making a particular choice. We show how the new model explains both simple immediate choices, choices that depend on multiple sensory factors and complicated selections between alternatives that require forward looking simulations based on episodic and semantic memory structures. In this framework, vicarious trial and error is explained as an internal simulation that accumulates evidence for a particular choice. We argue that a system like this forms the “missing link” between more traditional ideas of semantic and episodic memory, and the associative nature of reinforcement learning.
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