sort of connectionist:

[James Hendler]

			CALL FOR PAPERS

		      CONNECTION SCIENCE
	    (Journal of Neural Computing, Artificial 
	      Intelligence and Cognitive Research)

		        Special Issue -- 
	   HYBRID SYMBOLIC/CONNECTIONIST SYSTEMS


Connectionism has recently seen a major resurgence of interest among
both artificial intelligence and cognitive science researchers.  The
spectrum of connectionist approaches is quite large, ranging from
structured models, in which individual network units carry meaning,
through distributed models of weighted networks with learning
algorithms.  Very encouraging results, particularly in ``low-level''
perceptual and signal processing tasks, are being reported across the
entire spectrum of these models.  Unfortunately, connectionist systems
have had more limited success in those ``higher cognitive'' areas
where symbolic models have traditionally shown promise: expert
reasoning, planning, and natural language processing.

While it may not be inherently impossible for purely connectionist
approaches to handle complex reasoning tasks someday, it will require
significant breakthroughs for this to happen.  Similarly, getting
purely symbolic systems to handle the types of perceptual reasoning
that connectionist networks perform well would require major advances
in AI.  One approach to the integration of connectionist and symbolic
techniques is the development of hybrid reasoning systems in which
differing components can communicate in the solving of problems.

This special issue of the journal Connection Science will focus on the
state of the art in the development of such hybrid reasoners.  Papers
are solicited which focus on:

	Current artificial intelligence systems which use
	connectionist components in the reasoning tasks they 
	perform.

	Theoretical or experimental results showing how symbolic
	computations can be implemented in, or augmented by,
	connectionist components.

	Cognitive studies which discuss the relationship between
	functional models of higher level cognition and the ``lower
	level'' implementations in the brain.

The special issue will give special consideration to papers sharing
the primary emphases of the Connection Science Journal which include:

	1) Replicability of Results: results of simulation models
	should be reported in such a way that they are repeatable by
	any competent scientist in another laboratory.
	The journal will be sympathetic to the problems that 
	replicability poses for large complex artificial intelligence 
	programs.

	2) Interdisciplinary research: the journal is by nature
	multidisciplinary and will accept articles from a variety of
	disciplines such as psychology, cognitive science, computer
	science, language and linguistics, artificial intelligence,
	biology, neuroscience, physics, engineering and philosophy.
	It will particularly welcome papers which deal with issues
	from two or more subject areas (e.g. vision and language).

Papers submitted to the special issue will also be considered for
publication in later editions of the journal. All papers will be
refereed.  The expected publication date for the special issue is 
Volume 2(1), March, 1990.

DEADLINES:
	Submission of papers	June 15, 1989
	Reviews/decisions	September 30, 1989
	Final rewrites due	December 15, 1989.

Authors should send four copies of the article to:
	Prof. James A. Hendler
	Associate Editor, Connection Science 
	Dept. of Computer Science
	University of Maryland
	College Park, MD 20742
	USA

Those interested in submitting articles are welcome to contact the
editor via e-mail (hendler at brillig.umd.edu - US Arpa or CSnet) or in
writing at the above address.