Development: A Constructivist Manifesto

[Terry Sejnowski]

FTP-host: archive.cis.ohio-state.edu
FTP-file: pub/neuroprose/quartz.const.ps.Z

The file quartz.const.ps.Z is now available for copying from the
Neuroprose repository.  This is a 47 page paper. No hardcopies
available.

       THE NEURAL BASIS OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT:

               A CONSTRUCTIVIST MANIFESTO

		   	  by

	Steven R. Quartz and Terrence J. Sejnowski
	The Salk Institute for Biological Studies
	  PO Box 85800, San Diego CA 92186-5800
		  e-mail: steve at salk.edu

	submitted to: Behavioral and Brain Science
	

		       ABSTRACT: 

Through considering the neural basis of cognitive development, we
present a constructivist view. Its key feature is that
environmentally-derived activity regulates neuronal growth as a
progressive increase in the representational capacities of
cortex. Learning in development becomes a dynamic interaction between
the environment's informational structure and growth mechanisms,
allowing the representational properties of cortex to be constructed
by the problem domain confronting it. This is a uniquely powerful and
general learning strategy that undermines the central assumptions of
classical learnability theory. It also minimizes the need for
prespecification of cortical function, suggesting that cortical
evolution is a progression to more flexible representational
structures, in contrast to the popular view of cortical evolution as
an increase in specialized, innate circuits.




************ How to obtain a copy of the paper *************

Via Anonymous FTP:

unix> ftp archive.cis.ohio-state.edu
Name: anonymous
Password: (type your email address)
ftp> cd pub/neuroprose
ftp> binary
ftp> get quartz.const.ps.Z
ftp> quit
unix> uncompress quartz.const.ps.Z
unix> lpr quartz.const.ps.Z (or what you normally do to print PostScript)