Rethinking Innateness – A Connectionist Perspective on Development (Neural Network Modeling and Connectionism) - Softcover

Elman, Jeffery

Softcover

ISBN 10: 026255030X ISBN 13: 9780262550307

Publisher: MIT Press, 1998

Synopsis

Rethinking Innateness asks the question, "What does it really mean to say that a behavior is innate?" The authors describe a new framework in which interactions, occurring at all levels, give rise to emergent forms and behaviors. These outcomes often may be highly constrained and universal, yet are not themselves directly contained in the genes in any domain-specific way. One of the key contributions of Rethinking Innateness is a taxonomy of ways in which a behavior can be innate. These include constraints at the level of representation, architecture, and timing; typically, behaviors arise through the interaction of constraints at several of these levels.The ideas are explored through dynamic models inspired by a new kind of "developmental connectionism," a marriage of connectionist models and developmental neurobiology, forming a new theoretical framework for the study of behavioral development. While relying heavily on the conceptual and computational tools provided by connectionism, Rethinking Innateness also identifies ways in which these tools need to be enriched by closer attention to biology.

About this title

Review

"Rethinking Innateness is a milestone as important as theappearance ten years ago of the PDP books. More integratedin its structure, more biological in its approach, this bookprovides a new theoretical framework for cognition that isbased on dynamics, growth, and learning. Study this book if youare interested in how minds emerge from developing brains." Terrence J. Sejnowski, Professor, Salk Institute forBiological Studies

Synopsis

This text asks the question, what does it really mean to say that a behaviour is innate? The authors describe a framework in which interactions occurring at all levels give rise to emergent forms and behaviours. These outcomes often may be highly constrained and universal, yet are not themselves directly contained in the genes in any domain-specific way. The authors explore their ideas through dynamic models inspired by a new kind of "developmental connectionism", a marriage of connectionist models and developmental neurobiology, forming a new theoretical framework for the study of behavioural development.

Edition details

• Publisher: MIT Press
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 026255030X
• ISBN 13: 9780262550307
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 468