How Can So Little Brain Hold So Much Knowledge? Applicability of the Principle of Natural Selection to Mental Processes

Glassman, Robert B.

doi:10.1007/bf03394458

Cited by 33 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…I should point out that the view I am expressing -that the components of an ecological theory of learning will be principles of adaptation -is not to be confused with recent proposals that the mechanisms of learning are analogous to the mechanisms of natural selection, whereby adaptations arise in the course of evolution (Staddon & Simmelhag 1971;Campbell 1974;Staddon 1975;Glassman 1977). Whatever the merits of that view, it imparts no ecological content to the study of learning, and it has no bearing on the arguments at hand.…”

Section: Concluding Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contrasting approaches to a theory of learning

Johnston

1981

Behav Brain Sci

400

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The general process view of learning, which guided research into learning for the first half of this century, has come under attack in recent years from several quarters. One form of criticism has come from proponents of the so-called biological boundaries approach to learning. These theorists have presented a variety of data showing that supposedly general laws of learning may in fact be limited in their applicability to different species and learning tasks, and they argue that the limitations are drawn by the nature of each species, adaptation to the particular requirements of its natural environment. The biological boundaries approach has served an important critical function in the move away from general process learning theory, but it is limited in its ability to provide an alternative to the general process approach. In particular, the biological boundaries approach lacks generality, it is in some respects subservient to the general process tradition, and its ecological content is in too many cases limited to ex post facto adaptive explanations of learning skills. A contrasting, ecological approach to learning, which can provide a true alternative to general process theory, is presented. The ecological approach begins by providing an ecological task description for naturally occurring instances of learning; this step answers the question: What does this animal learn to do? The next step is an analysis of the means by which learning occurs in the course of development, answering the question : How does the animal learn to do this? On the basis of such analyses, local principles of adaptation are formulated to account for the learning abilities of individual species. More global principles are sought by generalization among these local principles and may form the basis for a general ecological theory of learning.

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Section: Concluding Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contrasting approaches to a theory of learning

Johnston

1981

Behav Brain Sci

400

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“…As a result, human first "read" peers' experience, then justify the reasonability and verify the feasibility by itself, finally "hold" the justified and verified experience into their own use [19]. So the "mind-readness" part and the "mindholdness" part are important to humans' PEL, then a PEL mechanism of human can be derived based on the studies of brain science [20], which is shown in Fig.…”

Section: Peers' Experience Learning Of Humansmentioning

confidence: 99%

Peers’ Experience Learning for Developmental Robots

Wei

2019

Int J of Soc Robotics

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Humans have a fundamental ability that is to learn others' experience for their own use, while humanoid robots don't have. Several attempts have been made for specific situations in evolution and study of developmental robots. However, such attempts have provided limitations, e.g. others' experience learning get overlooked. The present article proposes peers' experience learning method, which first reviewed the evolution and development of developmental robots as some typical studies revealed, moving from humanlike to developmental. These terms are then reconsidered from humanoid robots' viewpoint, particularly with the developmental principles: the verification principle and the embodiment principle. Next, a conceptual model of peers' experience learning is proposed based on the principles, and the simulation results show that robots can "copy" peers' experience to cognize and develop automatically. Finally, a general discussion and proposals for addressing future issues are given.

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Contribution of the Genetical and Neural Memory to Animal Intelligence

Csányi

1988

Intelligence and Evolutionary Biology

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How Can So Little Brain Hold So Much Knowledge? Applicability of the Principle of Natural Selection to Mental Processes

Cited by 33 publications

References 17 publications

Contrasting approaches to a theory of learning

Contrasting approaches to a theory of learning

Peers’ Experience Learning for Developmental Robots

Contribution of the Genetical and Neural Memory to Animal Intelligence

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