Analogy

Constructing shared interpretations in a team of intelligent agents: the effects of communication intensity and structure

by Davide Marchiori

Co-authored with Massimo Warglien

In this paper we explore a model of a team of intelligent agents constructing a shared interpretation of the state of... more In this paper we explore a model of a team of intelligent agents constructing a shared interpretation of the state of their environment. Each agent is modeled as a constraint satisfaction network of the Hopfield (1982) type.
We show that in a noisy environment communication intensity often has a non-monotonic effect on team interpretive accuracy. We also investigate how team communication can correct erroneous individual interpretations stored in agents’ memories — errors concerning what they know, not only what they perceive.
We also compare the effects of different communication structures, and show that communication structure matters only when agents are cognitively heterogeneous (each has a different repertoire of interpretations in his memory), while it has only a minor impact on team performance when agents are homogeneous.

Der Lautwandel in der Deklination des jakutischen Interrogativpronomens tuox? 'was?'

by Marek Stachowski

the flood in rabbinic literature

by Christophe Leblanc

a post in my blog

The principle of analogy and teleology in the story of the Flood The principle of analogy and teleology in the story of the Flood

The Creator Sings: A Wesleyan Rethinking of Transcendence with Robert Jenson

by Steve Wright

published in The Heythrop Journal

Connectionist implications for processing capacity limitations in analogies

by Ross Gayler

Halford, G.S., Wilson, W.H., Guo, J., Gayler, R.W., Wiles, J., & Stewart, J.E.M. (1994). Connectionist implications for processing capacity limitations in analogies. In K.J. Holyoak & J. Barnden (Eds.), Advances in connectionist and neural computation theory, Vol. 2: Analogical connections (pp. 363-415). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

There is now a reasonable amount of consensus that an analogy entails a mapping from one structure, the base or... more There is now a reasonable amount of consensus that an analogy entails a mapping from one structure, the base or source, to another structure, the target (Gentner, 1983, 1989; Holyoak & Thagard, 1989). Theories of human analogical reasoning have been reviewed by Gentner (1989), who concludes that there is basic agreement on the one-to-one mapping of elements and the carry over of predicates. Furthermore, as Palmer (1989) points out, some of the theoretical differences represent different levels of description rather than competing models. Despite this consensus about the central role of structure mapping, it really only treats the syntax of analogies, and there are also important pragmatic factors, as has been pointed out by Holland, Holyoak, Nisbett, and Thagard (1986) and Holyoak and Thagard (1989), However in this chapter we are primarily concerned with the problem of how to model the structure mapping or syntactic component of analogical reasoning in terms of parallel distributed processing (PDP) architectures.

According to Gentner (1983), attributes are not normally mapped in analogies, and only certain relations are mapped, the selection being based on systematicity, or the degree to which relations enter into a coherent structure. Gentner (1983) defines an attribute as a predicate taking one argument, whereas a relation is a predicate taking two arguments. Strictly, this only covers binary relations; in general, a relation is a predicate taking two or more arguments, so ternary relations have three arguments, quaternary relations four arguments, and so on. For our purposes a predicate is essentially an N-place relation; it can be defined as a N-place function from the Cartesian product of the N sets to the set {T,F}. This includes unary relations, which are predicates with one argument, and are equivalent to attributes in Gentner's terms. Our derivations based on relations can be applied to functions.

A distributed basis for analogical mapping

by Ross Gayler

Levy, S.D., & Gayler, R.W. (2009). A distributed basis for analogical mapping. In B. Kokinov, K. Holyoak, & D. Gentner (Eds.), New frontiers in analogy research; Proceedings of the Second International Analogy Conference - Analogy 09 (pp. 165-174. Sofia, Bulgaria: New Bulgarian University Press).

We are concerned with the practical feasibility of the neural basis of analogical mapping. All existing connectionist... more We are concerned with the practical feasibility of the neural basis of analogical mapping. All existing connectionist models of analogical mapping rely to some degree on localist representation (each concept or relation is represented by a dedicated unit/neuron). These localist solutions are implausible because they need too many units for human-level competence or require the dynamic re-wiring of networks on a sub-second time-scale.

Analogical mapping can be formalised as finding an approximate isomorphism between graphs representing the source and target conceptual structures. Connectionist models of analogical mapping implement continuous heuristic processes for finding graph isomorphisms. We present a novel connectionist mechanism for finding graph isomorphisms that relies on distributed, high-dimensional representations of structure and mappings. Consequently, it does not suffer from the problems of the number of units scaling combinatorially with the number of concepts or requiring dynamic network re-wiring.

EXPLORING THE IMPACTS OF ANALOGIES ON COMPUTER HARDWARE

by Serkan DINCER

In the last few decades, analogy, which is considered as a special case for reasoning, has attracted a great deal of... more In the last few decades, analogy, which is considered as a special case for reasoning, has attracted a great deal of attention from cognitive scientists. Although analogy was rarely applied in previous decades, now it is often considered by educators and researchers as a strategy to provide creative solutions and poetic writing (Paris & Glynn, 2004). Today, teaching models through analogy are used in different fields successfully and found to be beneficial for unobservable phenomena (Trey & Khan, 2008). Moving from the findings of previous studies, this study aims to explore the effects of detailed analogies on students’ learning success in studying the working rationale and hardware components of the computer. 86 students in 1st and 2nd grades of Computer and instructional Technology Department volunteered to participate in the study. The sample was divided into two groups randomly: the control group who received the lectures without using analogies and the experimental group who were taught using detailed analogies. The data was collected through pre- and post-tests at the beginning and at the end of one academic term. The results of the analyses show that the students’ success was significantly higher for the group taught via detailed analogies. Considering the low number of the studies conducted to identify the effects of analogies on computer sciences learning, the findings of this present study is supposed to initiate other studies in the field.

Bilgisayar ve Teknolojileri Öğreniminde Analoji (Benzetme) Yönteminin Yararları ve Yöntemleri

by Serkan DINCER

Günümüzde Bilgisayar Destekli Eğitim’in (BDE) önemi her geçen gün artmaktadır. BDE, hemen hemen her düzeydeki eğitim... more Günümüzde Bilgisayar Destekli Eğitim’in (BDE) önemi her geçen gün artmaktadır. BDE, hemen hemen her düzeydeki eğitim birimlerinde kullanılmaktadır. Fakat bilgisayar kullanımı üzerine BDE kadar düşülmemektedir. Lise hatta Üniversite sıralarına gelmiş öğrencilerimiz bilgisayarla ilk defa tanışmaktadır. Bu ilk tanışmanın ardından bu öğrencilere bilgisayarı anlatmak oldukça zordur. Bilgisayar bilgileri olmayan bu öğrencilere bilgisayar terimlerini, çalışma mantıklarını atlatmak öğrencileri kavram karmaşasına sokmaktadır.

Bu çalışmanın amacı, Analoji Yöntemi ile bilgisayar öğreniminin öğrencilerin başarısına etkisini araştırmaktır. Çalışma Çukurova Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi BÖTE bölümü 1. sınıf öğrencilerine yapılmıştır. Sınıf, deney ve kontrol grubu olmak üzere toplam 44 öğrenci olarak iki gruba ayrılmıştır. Öğrencilere, konular anlatılmadan önce 20 soruluk ön test, konular anlatıldıktan sonrada 17 soruluk son test olmak üzere iki adet başarı testi yapılmıştır.

Bu sonuçlar “t - testi” ve “ANOVA” ile analiz edilmiş; analizin sonucunda bu iki grup arasında deney grubunun lehine anlamlı bir fark olduğu ortaya çıkmıştır.