The importance of situation-specific encodings: analysis of a simple connectionist model of letter transposition effects
This paper analyses a three-layer connectionist network that solves a translation-invariance problem, offering a novel explanation for transposed letter effects in word reading. Analysis of the hidden unit encodings provides insight into two central issues in cognitive science: (1) What is the novel...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Taylor & Francis Group
2018-04-01
|
| Series: | Connection Science |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09540091.2016.1272097 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1849764148870643712 |
|---|---|
| author | Shin-Yi Fang Garrett Smith Whitney Tabor |
| author_facet | Shin-Yi Fang Garrett Smith Whitney Tabor |
| author_sort | Shin-Yi Fang |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This paper analyses a three-layer connectionist network that solves a translation-invariance problem, offering a novel explanation for transposed letter effects in word reading. Analysis of the hidden unit encodings provides insight into two central issues in cognitive science: (1) What is the novelty of claims of “modality-specific” encodings? and (2) How can a learning system establish a complex internal structure needed to solve a problem? Although these topics (embodied cognition and learnability) are often treated separately, we find a close relationship between them: modality-specific features help the network discover an abstract encoding by causing it to break the initial symmetries of the hidden units in an effective way. While this neural model is extremely simple compared to the human brain, our results suggest that neural networks need not be black boxes and that carefully examining their encoding behaviours may reveal how they differ from classical ideas about the mind-world relationship. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-c09e486fc2cb4f50af33887e95b4d4f7 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 0954-0091 1360-0494 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2018-04-01 |
| publisher | Taylor & Francis Group |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Connection Science |
| spelling | doaj-art-c09e486fc2cb4f50af33887e95b4d4f72025-08-20T03:05:13ZengTaylor & Francis GroupConnection Science0954-00911360-04942018-04-0130213515910.1080/09540091.2016.12720971272097The importance of situation-specific encodings: analysis of a simple connectionist model of letter transposition effectsShin-Yi Fang0Garrett Smith1Whitney Tabor2University of ConnecticutUniversity of ConnecticutUniversity of ConnecticutThis paper analyses a three-layer connectionist network that solves a translation-invariance problem, offering a novel explanation for transposed letter effects in word reading. Analysis of the hidden unit encodings provides insight into two central issues in cognitive science: (1) What is the novelty of claims of “modality-specific” encodings? and (2) How can a learning system establish a complex internal structure needed to solve a problem? Although these topics (embodied cognition and learnability) are often treated separately, we find a close relationship between them: modality-specific features help the network discover an abstract encoding by causing it to break the initial symmetries of the hidden units in an effective way. While this neural model is extremely simple compared to the human brain, our results suggest that neural networks need not be black boxes and that carefully examining their encoding behaviours may reveal how they differ from classical ideas about the mind-world relationship.http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09540091.2016.1272097connectionismlearningmodality-specific encodingssymmetry breakingletter transposition |
| spellingShingle | Shin-Yi Fang Garrett Smith Whitney Tabor The importance of situation-specific encodings: analysis of a simple connectionist model of letter transposition effects Connection Science connectionism learning modality-specific encodings symmetry breaking letter transposition |
| title | The importance of situation-specific encodings: analysis of a simple connectionist model of letter transposition effects |
| title_full | The importance of situation-specific encodings: analysis of a simple connectionist model of letter transposition effects |
| title_fullStr | The importance of situation-specific encodings: analysis of a simple connectionist model of letter transposition effects |
| title_full_unstemmed | The importance of situation-specific encodings: analysis of a simple connectionist model of letter transposition effects |
| title_short | The importance of situation-specific encodings: analysis of a simple connectionist model of letter transposition effects |
| title_sort | importance of situation specific encodings analysis of a simple connectionist model of letter transposition effects |
| topic | connectionism learning modality-specific encodings symmetry breaking letter transposition |
| url | http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09540091.2016.1272097 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT shinyifang theimportanceofsituationspecificencodingsanalysisofasimpleconnectionistmodeloflettertranspositioneffects AT garrettsmith theimportanceofsituationspecificencodingsanalysisofasimpleconnectionistmodeloflettertranspositioneffects AT whitneytabor theimportanceofsituationspecificencodingsanalysisofasimpleconnectionistmodeloflettertranspositioneffects AT shinyifang importanceofsituationspecificencodingsanalysisofasimpleconnectionistmodeloflettertranspositioneffects AT garrettsmith importanceofsituationspecificencodingsanalysisofasimpleconnectionistmodeloflettertranspositioneffects AT whitneytabor importanceofsituationspecificencodingsanalysisofasimpleconnectionistmodeloflettertranspositioneffects |