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Connectionist Modeling

Jenny Hayes

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Overview

• What are connectionist models?• How do they work?• How are they used in psychology?

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What are Connectionist models?

• Neurally inspired – Many neurons - many units– Densely interconnected in a complex network– Random initial weights between units– Connections between units are strengthened

as items are paired together – Or weakened if items are not paired together

• So learning is driven by associative memory ONLY

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How do they work?

• Supervised v unsupervised– Teacher signal (self - supervised)– Group together on basis of similarity

• Static v sequential

• Learning based on statistical regularities in the training set. Can make accurate predictions on unseen input.

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How are they used in Psychology?

• Any application where learning is thought to proceed by associative memory– Past tense of English– English and German Plurals– Compounding in English

– letter production, Balance beam, semantic deficits