No subject

This CFP is also available in MSWord and PDF format, from:

  http://www.cs.wlu.edu/~levy/aaai04/AAAI_FSS04_CCCS_CFP.doc
  http://www.cs.wlu.edu/~levy/aaai04/AAAI_FSS04_CCCS_CFP.pdf


           Compositional Connectionism in Cognitive Modeling
                   (AAAI 2004 Fall Symposium Series)

                          October 22-24, 2004
                      Washington, D.C.  U.S.A.

This symposium will bring together connectionist and non-connectionist
researchers to discuss and debate a topic of central concern in AI and
cognitive science: the nature of compositionality. The open-ended
productivity of the human capabilities aspired to by AI (e.g.,
perception, cognition, and language) is generally taken to be a
consequence of compositionality; i.e., the ability to combine
constituents recursively. The aim of this symposium is to expose
connectionist researchers to the broadest possible range of conceptions
of composition  including those conceptions that pose the greatest
challenge for connectionism  while simultaneously alerting other AI and
cognitive science researchers to the range of possibilities for
connectionist implementation of composition. We therefore welcome and
encourage submissions from both proponents and critics of connectionist
representations, so long as the work described focuses on
compositionality in an AI or in the modeling of cognition.

Specifically, the symposium will seek to address the following issues:

(1) What do we mean by compositional in terms of the relationship
between the constituents and the composite?

(2) What do we mean by the process of composition?

(3) Are composition and decomposition (of a given type) completely
symmetric operations?

(4) What constituents (that are relevant to human agency) can be
composed?

(5) What are the consequences of having multiple interacting
compositional systems?

(6) To what extent do "structure-in-time" connectionist models, like
Elman's Simple Recurrent Networks, represent compositional structure?

(7) Do different connectionist models implement different aspects of
compositionality, and can they be used in conjunction to address
different aspects of composition?

Plenary Speakers

Dr. Jeffrey Elman, Dept. of Cognitive Science, University of California
at San Diego

Dr. Mark Steedman, School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh

Submissions

Standard talks at the symposium will be allocated 20 minutes for
presentation, and papers will be limited to four pages. As the
participants are expected to come from a wide range of disciplines,
authors are asked to consider very carefully these constraints of
brevity and variable background knowledge in planning their papers. Such
constraints will be a primary criterion for evaluating submissions. Send
submissions (in PDF, Postscript, or Microsoft Word format) to
levys at wlu.edu (Simon D. Levy).

Important Deadlines for Authors

May 3, 2004 Submission due to organizers
May 24, 2004 Notifications of acceptance sent by organizers
August 31, 2004 Accepted camera-ready copy due to AAAI

Registration

The symposium will be limited to 40-60 participants. Those interested in
attending should submit a paper (details above) or, if not intending to
speak, submit a brief position paper or research abstract. Both sorts of
submission (full paper or position / abstract) are due May 3, 2004. The
symposium is intended for active participants, however there may be a
limited number of places for interested individuals. These will be
available on a first-come, first-served basis after the opening of
general registration. General registration information will be available
on the AAAI web site in July 2004.

More detailed registration information will be available later and a
separate Call for Participation will be made.

Organizing Committee

Simon D. Levy Computer Science Dept., Washington & Lee University
Ross Gayler La Trobe University / Baycorp Advantage Value Solutions
Pentti Kanerva Redwood Neuroscience Institute
Chris Eliasmith Depts. of Philosophy / Systems Design Engineering, U.
Waterloo

Further Information

For further information on the AAAI Symposia please see:
http://www.aaai.org/Symposia/symposia.html
http://www.aaai.org/Symposia/Fall/2004/fss-04.html
-- 
Simon D. Levy
Assistant Professor
Computer Science Department
Washington & Lee University
Lexington, VA 24450

540-458-8419 (voice)
540-458-8479 (fax)
levys at wlu.edu
http://www.cs.wlu.edu/~levy