On the Validity of Simulating Stagewise Development by Means of PDP Networks: Application of Catastrophe Analysis and an Experimental Test of Rule-Like Network Performance

This article addresses the ability of Parallel Distributed Processing (PDP) networks to generate stagewise cognitive development in accordance with Piaget’s theory of cognitive epigenesis. We carried out a replication study of the simulation experiments by McClelland (1989) and McClelland and Jenkins (1991) in which a PDP network learns to solve balance scale problems. In objective tests motivated from catastrophe theory, o mathematical theory of tronsitions in epigeneticol systems, no evidence for stage transitions in network performance was found. It is concluded that PDP networks lack the ability to recover the positive outcomes of analogous catastrophe anolyses of real cognitive developmental data. In an ottempt to further characterize the learning behaviour of PDP networks, we carried out ct second simulation study using the discrimination-shift paradigm. The results thus obtained indicate that PDP learning is compatible with the learning of stimulus-response relationships. not with the acquisition of mediating rules such as conceived in (neo-)Piogetian theory. In closing, we speculate about the feasibility of simulating stagewise development with alternative network architectures.

[1]  Jonathan Baxter,et al.  Learning internal representations , 1995, COLT '95.

[2]  D. Shanks.  IMPLICIT LEARNING AND TACIT KNOWLEDGE - AN ESSAY ON THE COGNITIVE UNCONSCIOUS - REBER,A , 1995 .

[3]  Zenon W. Pylyshyn,et al.  Connectionism and cognitive architecture , 1993 .

[4]  K. Plunkett,et al.  Connectionism and developmental theory , 1992 .

[5]  H.L.J. van der Maas,et al.  Stagewise cognitive development: an application of catastrophe theory. , 1992, Psychological review.

[6]  K. Doya,et al.  Bifurcations in the learning of recurrent neural networks , 1992, [Proceedings] 1992 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems.

[7]  J. Kruschke,et al.  ALCOVE: an exemplar-based connectionist model of category learning. , 1992, Psychological review.

[8]  Stephen Grossberg,et al.  ARTMAP: supervised real-time learning and classification of nonstationary data by a self-organizing neural network , 1991, [1991 Proceedings] IEEE Conference on Neural Networks for Ocean Engineering.

[9]  Stephen Grossberg,et al.  Synchronized oscillations during cooperative feature linking in a cortical model of visual perception , 1991, Neural Networks.

[10]  Thomas R. Shultz,et al.  Simulating Stages of Human Cognitive Development With Connectionist Models , 1991, ML.

[11]  H. Thomas,et al.  Individual differences and development in water-level task performance , 1991 .

[12]  James L. McClelland,et al.  Nature, nurture, and connections: Implications of connectionist models for cognitive development. , 1991 .

[13]  S Mangrulkar,et al.  Artificial neural systems. , 1990, ISA transactions.

[14]  Paul F. M. J. Verschure,et al.  A note on chaotic behavior in simple neural networks , 1990, Neural Networks.

[15]  H. Thomas.  A binomial mixture model for classification performance: A commentary on Waxman, Chambers, Yntema, and Gelman (1989) , 1989 .

[16]  Fernando J. Pineda,et al.  Recurrent Backpropagation and the Dynamical Approach to Adaptive Neural Computation , 1989, Neural Computation.

[17]  S. Pinker.  Learnability and Cognition: The Acquisition of Argument Structure , 1989 .

[18]  Klaas Sijtsma,et al.  The Linear Logistic Test Model and heterogeneity of cognitive strategies , 1989 .

[19]  R. Siegler,et al.  Mechanisms of cognitive development. , 1989, Annual review of psychology.

[20]  James L. McClelland.  Parallel Distributed Processing: Implications for Cognition and Development , 1988 .

[21]  S. Pinker,et al.  On language and connectionism: Analysis of a parallel distributed processing model of language acquisition , 1988, Cognition.

[22]  P. Smolensky.  On the proper treatment of connectionism , 1988, Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

[23]  Stephen Grossberg,et al.  A massively parallel architecture for a self-organizing neural pattern recognition machine , 1988, Comput. Vis. Graph. Image Process..

[24]  D. Field.  A review of preschool conservation training: An analysis of analyses☆☆☆ , 1987 .

[25]  P. Molenaar.  Issues with a Rule-Sampling Theory of Conservation Learning from a Structuralist Point of View , 1986 .

[26]  Mark H. Bickhard,et al.  Knowing Levels and Developmental Stages , 1986 .

[27]  Geoffrey E. Hinton,et al.  Learning internal representations by error propagation , 1986 .

[28]  James L. McClelland,et al.  On learning the past-tenses of English verbs: implicit rules or parallel distributed processing , 1986 .

[29]  Iris Levin,et al.  Stage and Structure: Reopening the Debate , 1986 .

[30]  Peter C. M. Molenaar,et al.  On the impossibility of acquiring more powerful structures: A neglected alternative. , 1986 .

[31]  K. Fischer,et al.  Stages and Individual Differences in Cognitive Development , 1985 .

[32]  R. Harmon,et al.  Continuities and Discontinuities in Development , 2012, Topics in Developmental Psychobiology.

[33]  K. Fischer,et al.  Detecting Developmental Discontinuities , 1984 .

[34]  S. Grossberg.  Studies of mind and brain : neural principles of learning, perception, development, cognition, and motor control , 1982 .

[35]  L. Tabor.  Testing for developmental continuity or discontinuity: Class inclusion and reversal shifts , 1981 .

[36]  J. Barchas,et al.  Catastrophe theory of dopaminergic transmission: a revised dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia. , 1981, Journal of theoretical biology.

[37]  Robert Gilmore,et al.  Catastrophe Theory for Scientists and Engineers , 1981 .

[38]  R. Siegler.  Developmental Sequences within and between Concepts. , 1981 .

[39]  Adrien Pinard,et al.  The conservation of conservation : the child's acquisition of a fundamental concept , 1981 .

[40]  P. Preece.  A Geometrical Model of Piagetian Conservation , 1980 .

[41]  S. Grossberg,et al.  How does a brain build a cognitive code? , 1980, Psychological review.

[42]  T. S. Kendler,et al.  The development of discrimination learning: a levels--of--functioning explanation. , 1979, Advances in child development and behavior.

[43]  N. Anderson,et al.  The height?+?width rule in children's judgments of quantity , 1978 .

[44]  Charles J. Brainerd,et al.  The stage question in cognitive-developmental theory , 1978, Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

[45]  R. Siegler.  Children's Thinking : What Develops? , 1978 .

[46]  Robert Rosen,et al.  Structural stability and morphogenesis , 1977 .

[47]  Donald G. Saari,et al.  A qualitative model for the dynamics of cognitive processes , 1977 .

[48]  R. Siegler.  Three aspects of cognitive development , 1976, Cognitive Psychology.

[49]  J. G. Wallace,et al.  Cognitive development: An information-processing view , 1976 .

[50]  Donald O. Walter,et al.  Mass action in the nervous system , 1975 .

[51]  Nicolas J. Esposito.  Review of discrimination shift learning in young children. , 1975 .

[52]  S. I. Offenbach.  A developmental study of hypothesis testing and cue selection strategies. , 1974 .

[53]  T. J. Tighe,et al.  Subproblem Analysis of Discrimination Learning , 1973 .

[54]  C. C. Spiker,et al.  Applications of Hull-Spence theory to the transfer of discrimination learning in children. , 1973, Advances in child development and behavior.

[55]  P. Jacobs,et al.  Reversal Shifting: Its Stability and Relation to Intelligence at Two Developmental Levels. , 1972 .

[56]  M. Levine,et al.  Hypotheses, strategies, and stereotypes in discrimination learning , 1972 .

[57]  T. J. Tighe,et al.  Reversals prior to solution of concept identification in children , 1972 .

[58]  K. Frey,et al.  Subproblem analysis of discrimination shift learning in the rat , 1972 .

[59]  H. Kalmus.  Biological Cybernetics , 1972, Nature.

[60]  Michael Cole,et al.  Subproblem analysis of discrimination-shift learning , 1971 .

[61]  D. J. Dickerson,et al.  Development of hypothesis behavior in human concept identification. , 1969 .

[62]  Peter D. Eimas,et al.  A developmental study of hypothesis behavior and focusing , 1969 .

[63]  Howard H. Kendler,et al.  Reversal-shift behavior: Some basic issues. , 1969 .

[64]  N. J. Slamecka.  A methodological analysis of shift paradigms in human discrimination learning. , 1968, Psychological bulletin.

[65]  J L Wolff,et al.  Concept-shift and discrimination-reversal learning in humans. , 1967, Psychological bulletin.

[66]  M E Bitterman,et al.  Improvement in habit reversal as related to dimensional set. , 1966, Journal of comparative and physiological psychology.

[67]  T. J. Tighe,et al.  Overtraining and optional shift behavior in rats and children. , 1966, Journal of comparative and physiological psychology.

[68]  M. Levine.  Hypothesis behavior by humans during discrimination learning. , 1966, Journal of experimental psychology.

[69]  T J TIGHE,et al.  REVERSAL AND NONREVERSAL SHIFTS IN MONKEYS. , 1964, Journal of comparative and physiological psychology.

[70]  H. Kendler,et al.  Optional shift behavior of albino rats , 1964 .

[71]  G. Bower,et al.  REVERSALS PRIOR TO SOLUTION IN CONCEPT IDENTIFICATION. , 1963, Journal of experimental psychology.

[72]  H. Kendler,et al.  Mediated responses to size and brightness as a function of age. , 1962, The American journal of psychology.

[73]  H. Kendler,et al.  Vertical and horizontal processes in problem solving. , 1962, Psychological review.

[74]  M. Levine,et al.  A model of hypothesis behavior in discrimination learning set. , 1959, Psychological review.

[75]  G. Friedman,et al.  Comparing reversal and nonreversal shifts in concept formation with partial reinforcement controlled. , 1958, Journal of experimental psychology.

[76]  A. Buss,et al.  Reversal and nonreversal shifts in concept formation with partial reinforcement eliminated. , 1956, Journal of experimental psychology.

[77]  R. T. Kelleher.  Discrimination learning as a function of reversal and nonreversal shifts. , 1956, Journal of experimental psychology.

[78]  H. Kendler,et al.  A comparison of reversal shifts and nonreversal shifts in human concept formation behavior. , 1955, Journal of experimental psychology.

[79]  K. H. Stauder.  [Psychology of the child]. , 1953, Medizinische Klinik.

[80]  S. S. Wilks.  The Large-Sample Distribution of the Likelihood Ratio for Testing Composite Hypotheses , 1938 .

[81]  K. Spence.  The nature of discrimination learning in animals. , 1936 .