learning_theories:connectionism
Differences
This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.
| Both sides previous revision Previous revision Next revision | Previous revision Next revision Both sides next revision | ||
|
learning_theories:connectionism [2011/02/28 13:12] jpetrovic [What is connectionism?] |
learning_theories:connectionism [2011/02/28 14:49] jpetrovic [What is connectionism?] |
||
|---|---|---|---|
| Line 4: | Line 4: | ||
| ===== General ===== | ===== General ===== | ||
| - | Connectionism, today defined as an approach in the fields of artificial intelligence, cognitive psychology, cognitive science and philosophy of mind which **models mental** or **behavioral phenomena** with **networks of simple units**(([[http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Connectionism|wordiQ: Connectionism - Definition]])), is not a theory in frames of [[learning_paradigms:behaviorism]], it **preceded** and **influenced behaviorist school**. Although it is today used in different contexts (mostly referring to neural networks and artificial neural networks that have not emerged until second half of the 20th century) it has origins dating as far back as Greek philosopher Aristotele, who claimed that memory is composed of simple elements connected in a variety of ways((J. A. Anderson, A. Pellionisz and Rosenfeld, E. Neurocomputing 2. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1990.)). | + | Connectionism, today defined as an approach in the fields of artificial intelligence, cognitive psychology, cognitive science and philosophy of mind which **models mental** or **behavioral phenomena** with **networks of simple units**(([[http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Connectionism|wordiQ: Connectionism - Definition]])), is not a theory in frames of [[learning_paradigms:behaviorism]], it **preceded** and **influenced behaviorist school**. Although it is today used in different contexts (mostly referring to neural networks and artificial neural networks that have not emerged until second half of the 20th century) it has origins dating as far back as Greek philosopher Aristotele, who claimed that memory is composed of simple elements connected in a variety of ways(([[http://books.google.hr/books?id=u6j6HTS-rVQC&pg=PA47&dq=J.+A.+Anderson,+A.+Pellionisz+and+Rosenfeld,+E.+Neurocomputing+2&hl=hr&ei=G6drTezgJMO58gPTv-nyBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false|J. A. Anderson, A. Pellionisz and Rosenfeld, E. Neurocomputing 2. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1990.]])). |
| Line 10: | Line 10: | ||
| ===== What is connectionism? ===== | ===== What is connectionism? ===== | ||
| - | Connectionism represents psychology's first comprehensive theory of learning((Zimmerman, Barry J., and Dale H. Schunk. Educational psychology: a century of contributions. Routledge, 2003.)). It was introduced by [[http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information/biography/pqrst/spencer_herbert.html|Herbert Spencer]], [[http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/james/|William James]] and his student [[http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/thorndike.htm|Edward Thorndike]] in the very beginning of the 20th century. Connectionism was then **based on principles of associationism** which claimed that((W. Bechtel and Abrahamsen, A. Connectionism and the Mind: An Introduction to Parallel Processing in Networks. Blackwell, Cambridge, MA, 1991.)): | + | Connectionism represents psychology's first comprehensive theory of learning(([[http://books.google.hr/books?id=bqo5A2nBwHYC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false|Zimmerman, Barry J., and Dale H. Schunk. Educational psychology: a century of contributions. Routledge, 2003.]])). It was introduced by [[http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information/biography/pqrst/spencer_herbert.html|Herbert Spencer]], [[http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/james/|William James]] and his student [[http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/thorndike.htm|Edward Thorndike]] in the very beginning of the 20th century. Connectionism was then **based on principles of associationism** which claimed that(([[http://books.google.hr/books?id=wFqlQgAACAAJ&dq=Connectionism+and+the+Mind:+An+Introduction+to+Parallel+Processing+in+Networks&hl=hr&ei=kKdrTdv3C5Sq8QPzs8W_BQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAA|W. Bechtel and Abrahamsen, A. Connectionism and the Mind: An Introduction to Parallel Processing in Networks. Blackwell, Cambridge, MA, 1991.]])): |
| * Mental elements or ideas become associated with one another through experience | * Mental elements or ideas become associated with one another through experience | ||
| Line 18: | Line 18: | ||
| * Simple additive rules are sufficient to predict complex ideas | * Simple additive rules are sufficient to predict complex ideas | ||
| - | But connectionism **expands** this **ideas of associationism** by introducing ideas like [[:glossary#distributed_representations|distributed representations]] or supervised learning(([[http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.86.7504&rep=rep1&type=pdf|Medler, David A. A Brief History of Connectionism. Neural Computing Surveys, 1(2), p18-72. 1998.]])) and should not be confused with associationism. Although he is considered one of the first true connectionist, Edward Thorndike also made the move towards behaviorist ideas. | + | But connectionism **expands** this **ideas of associationism** by introducing ideas like [[:glossary#distributed_representations|distributed representations]] or supervised learning(([[http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.86.7504&rep=rep1&type=pdf|Medler, David A. A Brief History of Connectionism. Neural Computing Surveys, 1(2), p18-72. 1998.]])) and should not be confused with associationism. |
| [[http://historyofpsych.blogspot.com/2010/01/american-behaviorism.html|{{ images:thorndikes_cat.jpg|Thorndike's cat experiment. Image borrowed from: History of Psychology: American Behaviorism. Click on the picture to follow the link. }}]] | [[http://historyofpsych.blogspot.com/2010/01/american-behaviorism.html|{{ images:thorndikes_cat.jpg|Thorndike's cat experiment. Image borrowed from: History of Psychology: American Behaviorism. Click on the picture to follow the link. }}]] | ||
| Line 33: | Line 33: | ||
| ===== What is the practical meaning of connectivism? ===== | ===== What is the practical meaning of connectivism? ===== | ||
| - | Connectionism was at its time considered a general theory of learning for both humans and animals. Thorndike's ideas which could well be applied for learning are the idea that rewards promote learning and that repetition enhances learning. An example of Thorndike's meaningful learning is learning to multiply by three should be learned in context of converting feet to yards. | + | Connectionism was at its time considered a general theory of learning for both humans and animals. Thorndike's ideas which could well be applied for learning are the idea that rewards promote learning and that repetition enhances learning. |
| - | + | ||
| + | In his book on learning of mathematics((Thorndike, E. The Psychology of Arithmetic. New York: Macmillan. 1922.)), Thorndike suggested problems children are expected to solve and learn from should be realistic. For example learning to multiply by three should be learned in context of converting feet to yards. He also emphasizes importance of **repetition** and insists on repetitive practice of basic arithmetic operations. Some of the principles in this book even seem inconsistent with his views on learning: here he refers to learning as meaningful and insightful. Well-learned basic skills enable learning of higher-order skills. | ||
| Thorndike tried to apply this to learning **mathematics**((Thorndike, E. The Psychology of Arithmetic. New York: Macmillan. 1922.)), **spelling and reading** ((Thorndike, E. The Teacher's Word Book. New York: Teachers College. 1921.)), measurement of **intelligence** ((Thorndike, E. at al. The Measurement of Intelligence. New York: Teachers College Press. 1927.)) and adult learning ((Thorndike, E. et al. Adult Learning. New York: Macmillan. 1928. )) mostly through his laws of learning. He was one of the pioneers of **active learning**, proposing children should learn by themselves rather than being thought. | Thorndike tried to apply this to learning **mathematics**((Thorndike, E. The Psychology of Arithmetic. New York: Macmillan. 1922.)), **spelling and reading** ((Thorndike, E. The Teacher's Word Book. New York: Teachers College. 1921.)), measurement of **intelligence** ((Thorndike, E. at al. The Measurement of Intelligence. New York: Teachers College Press. 1927.)) and adult learning ((Thorndike, E. et al. Adult Learning. New York: Macmillan. 1928. )) mostly through his laws of learning. He was one of the pioneers of **active learning**, proposing children should learn by themselves rather than being thought. | ||
| - | ===== Keywords and most important names ===== | ||
| - | * **Connectionism**, **stimulus-response**, **S-R**, **networks of simple units**, **associationism**, **supervised learning**, **law of exercise or use or frequency**, **law of effect**, **incremental learning**, **“trial and error** | + | |
| - | * [[http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information/biography/pqrst/spencer_herbert.html|Herbert Spencer]], [[http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/james/|William James]], [[http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/thorndike.htm|Edward Thorndike]] | + | |
| ===== Criticisms ===== | ===== Criticisms ===== | ||
| Thorndike tried to prove that all forms of thoughts and behaviors can be explained through S-R relations with use of repetition and reward, without need for introducing any unobservable internal states, yet this is **today** generally **considered incorrect**. This //learning through response// was later in 20th century replaced by //learning as knowledge construction//. Connectionism was in the first decades of 20th century succeeded by [[learning_paradigms:behaviorism]], but Thorndike's experiments also inspired [[learning_theories:gestalt_psychology|gestalt psychology]]. | Thorndike tried to prove that all forms of thoughts and behaviors can be explained through S-R relations with use of repetition and reward, without need for introducing any unobservable internal states, yet this is **today** generally **considered incorrect**. This //learning through response// was later in 20th century replaced by //learning as knowledge construction//. Connectionism was in the first decades of 20th century succeeded by [[learning_paradigms:behaviorism]], but Thorndike's experiments also inspired [[learning_theories:gestalt_psychology|gestalt psychology]]. | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | ===== Keywords and most important names ===== | ||
| + | |||
| + | * **Connectionism**, **stimulus-response**, **S-R**, **networks of simple units**, **associationism**, **supervised learning**, **law of exercise or use or frequency**, **law of effect**, **incremental learning**, **trial and error** | ||
| + | * [[http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information/biography/pqrst/spencer_herbert.html|Herbert Spencer]], [[http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/james/|William James]], [[http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/thorndike.htm|Edward Thorndike]] | ||
| Line 53: | Line 58: | ||
| [[http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/thorndike.htm|Reinemeyer, E. Edward Lee Thorndike. Muskingum University. May 1999.]] | [[http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/thorndike.htm|Reinemeyer, E. Edward Lee Thorndike. Muskingum University. May 1999.]] | ||
| - | |||
| - | [[http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.86.7504&rep=rep1&type=pdf|Medler, David A. A Brief History of Connectionism. Neural Computing Surveys, 1(2), p18-72. 1998.]] | ||
| Zimmerman, Barry J. and Schunk, Dale H. Educational psychology: a century of contributions. Routledge, 2003. | Zimmerman, Barry J. and Schunk, Dale H. Educational psychology: a century of contributions. Routledge, 2003. | ||
learning_theories/connectionism.txt · Last modified: 2023/06/19 18:03 (external edit)
Except where otherwise noted, content on this wiki is licensed under the following license: CC Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International
