Group-7

Mental World

What is Cognition? Cognition : Understanding and trying to make sense of the world Information processing Development of concepts The mental functions, mental processes and states of intelligent entities with focus on: comprehension, inference, decision-making, planning and learning etc.

Cognition Cerebral Cortex Seat for cognition How is Cerebral cortex able to do what it is able to do? Fuzzy explanations No clear cut perspective in exact terms Introducing Confabulation Theory A discrete insight into possible mechanism of thought

Confabulation Theory Proposed by Robert Hecht-Nielson All human cognition and behavior based on one simple, non-algorithmic procedure that has been named confabulation All aspects of cognition carried out using: a single type of knowledge and a single information processing operation called (confabulation)

Relevance Radical novel approach First-of-its-kind concrete model Issuing deeper insights into process of cognition Augmenting present Artificial intelligence knowledge discovery knowledge management

Roadmap Cognitive World Object Representation Knowledge Links Confabulation The Mathematics of Cogent Confabulation The Origin of Behaviour Conclusion

Cognitive World Object Representation Cerebral Cortex 4000 discrete, localized, disjoint patches Thalamocortical Module cortical patch and first-order thalamic zone uniquely paired by reciprocal axonal interconnection Module one attribute of an object of mental world

Cognitive World Object Representation

How are these modules used? Make groups of 60: symbols Module may consist of thousands of neurons Symbol: one possible descriptor of an attribute One neuron may belong to more than one symbols Symbols have to be permanent

Cognitive World Object Representation

What is Knowledge? Knowledge accumulates in discrete units Knowledge link or knowledge unit is an axonal linkage between source symbol and target symbol Source and target symbols belong to different modules

Knowledge Links

Formation of knowledge links Two symbols become co-active to send out signals Synapses are strengthened in the process of learning Permanent strengthening during sleep Billions of knowledge links Humans and animals are 'smart’

Confabulation One and only one information processing operation Localized Winners-take-all Symbol with highest total knowledge link input is conclusion of confabulation

Implications of Knowledge Link Source symbol neurons send signals to millions of transponder neurons Only few thousand transponder neurons become highly excited 10 % of the target neurons receive signals from multiple transponder neurons

Implications of Knowledge Link

Confabulation – Neuron Level

Cogency

Aristotelian model : An appealing model for cognition : p(ε|αβγδ) Wrong model Alternate model : Cogency : p(αβγδ|ε) α,β,γ,δ : Assumed facts ε : Conclusion

Cogency Theorems Thm 1: If αβγδ => ε exclusively, then maximization of cogency produces one and only one answer ε Aristotelian logic information environment: maximizing cogency gives logical answers

Cogency Theorems Cogency calculation : only in trivial situations Confabulation Product : p(α|ε).p(β|ε).p(γ|ε).p(δ|ε) Thm 2: [p(αβγδ|ε)] 4 = [p(αβγδε)/p(αε)].[p(αβγδε)/p(βε)]. [p(αβγδε)/p(γε)].[p(αβγδε)/p(δε)]. [p(α|ε).p(β|ε).p(γ|ε).p(δ|ε)] In non-exceptional cases, [p(αβγδ|ε)] 4 ≈C*[p(α|ε).p(β|ε).p(γ|ε).p(δ|ε)]

Confabulation Examples Some examples from test She could determine (whether, exactly, if, why) If it was not (immediately, clear, enough, true) Earthquake activity was [centered] For lack of a (unified, blockbuster, comprehensive, definitive) A lack of (urgency, oxygen, understanding) Regardless of expected [outcome, length] Automatic emergence of semantics and grammar

Why Cogency and not Baye’s Law? p(λ)=0.01; p(ε)=0.0001; p(αβγδ|λ)=0.01; p(αβγδ|ε)=0.2 p(αβγδ|ε)= 20 * p(αβγδ|λ) p(λ |αβγδ)= 5 * p(ε|αβγδ) Baye’s Law => λ Cogency => ε

Quiz! (For those who are sleeping) Quickly select a next word for each of the following: Company rules forbid taking Mickey and Minnie were Capitol hill observers are Paper is made from Riding the carousel was

Why Cogency and not Baye’s Law? Typical answers : Naps Happy Wondering Wood Fun ‘the’ also viable : Baye’s law

Conclusion-Action Principle: Origin of Behavior

Every time a confabulation operation on a module reaches a conclusion, an associated set of action commands are launched Winner of a confabulation competition employs skill knowledge to launch an action Skill knowledge, and skill learning are not parts of cognitive thinking

Hindering Blocks Conceiving and then precisely defining a confabulation architecture Conceiving and then precisely defining the thought processes Conceiving and executing an appropriately staged sequence of learning opportunities

Conclusion A new dimension to the mechanism of thought Based on Cogency (refutes Bayesian model) If proved correct Better insight into human cognition Will redefine the outlook towards various AI problems Radical improvement in present ML techniques

References Robert Hecht-Nielson, Cogent Confabulation, Neural Networks Letter, 2004 Robert Hecht-Nielson, Confabulation Theory: A Synopsis, Institute for Neural Computation, 2005 Robert Hecht-Nielson, The Mechanism of Thought, International Joint Conference on Neural Networks, 2006 scholarpedia.org/confabulation

ThanQ “Animal cognition maximizes cogency, and in a non- logic environment, cogency maximization implements what I call the ‘duck test.’" - Robert Hecht-Nielson “There must be some event that triggers every behavioral event, and it had to be the same in every instance, whether we're thinking, moving, or whatever." - Robert Hecht-Nielson