POSTNIPS cognitive science workshop

[Jordan B Pollack]

A  neuro-engineering  friend claimed  that cognitive scientists feared
"steep gradient  descents,"  and THAT'S why  they  didn't come  to the
post-NIPS workshops! I countered that there were just no topics which
made strong enough attractors...

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Modularity in Connectionist Models of Cognition

Friday November 6th, Vectorized AI Laboratory, Colorado
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Organizer: Jordan Pollack

Confirmed Speakers: Michael Mozer
                    Robert Jacobs
                    John Barnden
		    Rik Belew

(There is   room for a few  more  people to  have  confirmed 15 minute
slots, but half of the workshop is reserved for open discussion.)

ABSTRACT: Classical modular theories of mind presume mental "organs" -
function specific, put in place by evolution - which  communicate in a
symbolic language of thought.  In the 1980's, Connectionists radically
rejected this view in favor of  more integrated architectures, uniform
learning systems which  would be very  tightly coupled and communicate
through  many  feedforward    and feedback connections.   However,  as
connectionist  attempts   at  cognitive modeling   have   gotten  more
ambitious, ad-hoc modular structuring  has become more  prevalent. But
there are concerns regarding how much architectural bias is allowable.
There has been a flurry of work on resolving these concerns by seeking
the principles  by  which modularity   could  arise  in  connectionist
architectures. This will involve solving several major problems - data
decomposition,  structural  credit  assignment,  and shared   adaptive
representations.

This workshop will bring together proponents and  opponents of Modular
Connectionist   Architectures to   discuss research  direction, recent
progress, and long-term challenges.

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Jordan Pollack                            Assistant Professor
CIS Dept/OSU                              Laboratory for AI Research
2036 Neil Ave                             Email: pollack at cis.ohio-state.edu
Columbus, OH 43210                        Phone: (614)292-4890 (then * to fax)