8.0 Software

8.0 The Software

 
9.0 Test Results

 
10.0 Conclusions

 
11.0 Further studies

The general physical features of a scene (its colour, size, shape, or movement) can be registered without attention being brought to bear. A word not attended to in one ear can influence the meaning of a sentence listened to in the other ear, can disambiguate the meaning of a word.- subconscious characteristics.

 

15th July, 1992 - One possible storage structure worth some exploring is the use of a Markov tree for the storage of experiences and their recall.

Appendix A Recommended Reading

 

William H. Calvin, How Brains Think, Evolving Intelligence, Then and Now. (Basic Books, 1996)

Bernard J. Baars, A Cognitive theory of Consciousness. (Cambridge University Press 1988)

 

The Brains of Men and Machines

Appendix B Glossary of Terms

 

Agent

Attention

Concentration

Memory

Stimulus

Response

Experience

Feature

Recall

Associations

Feelings

Thinking

       Reasoning, abduction, induction, deduction, problem solving, cognition

Learning

       Adapting

Recognition

Communicating

Instinct

Environment

Motivation

Emotions

Moods

Intelligence

Consciousness

Ideas

Reward

Punishment

Pain

Pleasure

Instinct

Reflex

The following is a list of terminology / synonyms and definitions.

  • Symbols:   Concepts, inputs and outputs
  • Inputs:      Stimuli, Cues
  • Outputs:   Responses, Actions
  • Ideas:       Mental image, conception, opinion, plan, notion conceived by the mind
  • Concepts:  Thought or opinion, general notion or idea, especially one formed by generalization from particular examples.
  • Recognition: The identification of something from a lot of detailed information about it. Requires that previously an abstraction/generalization/induction has taken place and a memory kept of the result so that a pattern match can be done.

Experience: That which is remembered

  • Memory:      Memory stores symbols, and allows inputs to be recognized and associated experiences recalled.
  • Abstraction:   is the formation of an idea apart from the concrete things or situations that are used to form the idea. Abstract ideas so formed e.g. goodness, anger, whiteness, absentmindedness.
  • Generalization: is the forming of general notions or statements that are derived from particular instances.
  • Induction:     Drawing a general conclusion from number of known facts.

Thinking: Reasoning, Inference, Cognition

  • Deduction:   Reasoning from the general to the particular. infer.
  • Reason:      Logically think - to understand - to draw inferences.

Rational: Logical, method driven versus random

  • Inferences:  arrive at by thinking - to deduce, forming conclusions from premises.
  • Learning:    Get knowledge of (subject) or skill (art etc.) by study, experience (and practice), or being taught (instruction). By observation. Commit to memory.

Assumption:

Attitude: is a state of feeling (a type of mood?) associated with (relative to) a particular subject or situation. It’s the feeling component of your opinion about something.

Goal: an objective or aim which is the idea of a state of the external world and / or the internal mental world that is desirable. When the state is achieved and recognized (matches the idea) then the goal has been reached and a good feeling results (accomplishment).

Plan: The sequence of activities (responses/outputs) and events (stimuli/inputs) that you intend to perform and detect in order to reach a goal.

Belief: Ones understanding of the real world which is captured / represented in the mental model one has. Ones expectations of what will happen as a result of a certain output.

Words used interchangeably:

     Activity=output=response

     Happening=input=observation=stimulus

8th Nov 1993 - Some dictionary definitions help to get our mind around what is thinking.

Intelligence:  ability to perceive logical relationships and use one's knowledge to solve problems and respond appropriately to novel situations - Not acquired knowledge - perform human reasoning.

Think:           Process of arranging ideas in a pattern of relationships or of adding new ideas soon to be related to such a pattern - imagine.

 My definition includes the processes of reasoning, sound-intelligent reasoning, problem solving, deduction, induction, abduction?, not observable=covert (not overt), requires internal symbolic representation, requires an inference approach or sanctioned and recommended set of inferences based on the symbolic representation.

(There are? three criteria that determine the reflexive attraction of attention. They are Intensity, Novelty and Relevance.

Stimuli with intense features attract attention because they exhibit a high contrast to the features before, after or adjacent to them.

Stimuli with novel features attract attention because from these we have the opportunity to learn something new about the environment. E.g. An object appearing to defy the law of gravity will attract your interest.

Stimuli with relevant features attract attention because they usually have a direct bearing on the survival of the person. E.g. the heat of a flame. or because we have learnt that they are important. E.g. The sound of ones name.

All these types of attracting attention imply the existence of some form of memory or representation of stimuli with features for comparison purposes. For intense stimuli this representation is most likely built in to the senses themselves or possibly the brain stem because fast response is often necessary. Intense stimuli are usually experienced as some form of pain. To identify a novel stimulus as being new it must be compared with previously stored stimuli and found to not match them. And relevant stimuli must match memorized relevant ones for them to attract attention.)

Proprioception