Animal Learning and Cognition
In this advanced text the author, starting with the simple assumption that psychological associations are represented by the strength of synaptic connections, provides several mechanistic descriptions of complex cognitive behaviors. Part I presents neural network theories of classical conditioning, Part II describes neural networks of operant conditioning, and animal communication, Part III discusses spatial and cognitive mapping, and finally Part IV shows how neural network models permit one to simultaneously develop psychological theories and models of the brain. The book includes computer software that allows the computer simulation of classical conditioning and the effect of different brain lesions on many classical paradigms. All those people interested in neural networks, from psychologists, through neuroscientists to computer scientists working on artificial intelligence and robotics, will find this book an excellent advanced guide to the subject.
- Provides a thorough description of animal learning and cognition paradigms using neural network modelling
- Provides mathematical descriptions for many of the paradigms
- Complete with a computer program that illustrates classical conditioning and the effect of different brain lesions on many classical paradigms
Reviews & endorsements
"In this new effort, Nestor Schmajuk turns the powerful tools of neural-network modeling to animal learning and cognition...[H]e is among the best and most influential modelers working in the field...This book fully qualifies as a primer for neural-network models of animal cognition." American Scientist
"Animal Learning and Cognition presents a scholarly and authoritative synthesis of learning theory and neural connectionism that is a testament to the advances made in the last twenty-five years since Rescorla and Wagner initiated the contemporary era. It will set the agenda for research in animal learning and conditioning for the next decade." Anthony Dickinson, University of Cambridge
"An encyclopedic consideration of associative learning and cognition from the perspective of contemporary mathematical models and their implementation in the brain. Learning and cognition evolve within the framework of dynamical equations linked to brain processes and physiologically plausible mechanisms. This book is possibly the most unified approach to quantitative learning theory and its neural underpinnings since Hull's 1943 Principles of Behavior." John W. Moore, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
"In this new effort, Nestor Schmajuk turns the powerful tools of neural-network modeling to animal learning and cognition....he is among the best and most influential modelers working in the field." James S. Nairne, American Scientist
Product details
April 1997Paperback
9780521456968
352 pages
254 × 178 × 21 mm
0.63kg
144 b/w illus. 14 tables
Out of stock in print form with no current plan to reprint
Table of Contents
- Preface and acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1. Neural networks and associative learning
- Part I:
- 2. Classical conditioning: data and theories
- 3. Classical conditioning and cognitive mapping
- 4. Attentional processes
- 5. Storage and retrieval processes
- 6. Configural processes
- 7. Timing
- Part II:
- 8. Operant conditioning and animal communication: data theories and networks
- Part III:
- 9. Animal cognition: data and theories
- 10. Place learning and spatial navigation
- 11. Maze learning and cognitive mapping
- Part IV:
- 12. Learning, cognition and the hippocampus: data and theories
- 13. Hippocampal modulation of learning and cognition
- Conclusion
- 14. The character of the psychological law
- Companion diskette
- References
- Glossary
- Author index
- Subject index.