Implicit response-irrelevant number information triggers the SNARC effect : Evidence using a neural overlap paradigm

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Layered control architectures in robots and vertebrates

We revieiv recent research in robotics, neuroscience, evolutionary neurobiology, and ethology with the aim of highlighting some points of agreement and convergence. Specifically, we com pare Brooks' (1986) subsumption architecture for robot control with research in neuroscience demonstrating layered control systems in vertebrate brains, and with research in ethology that emphasizes the decomposition of control into multiple, intertwined behavior systems. From this perspective we then describe interesting parallels between the subsumption architecture and the natural layered behavior system that determines defense reactions in the rat. We then consider the action selection problem for robots and vertebrates and argue that, in addition to subsumption- like conflict resolution mechanisms, the vertebrate nervous system employs specialized selection mechanisms located in a group of central brain structures termed the basal ganglia. We suggest that similar specialized switching mechanisms might be employed in layered robot control archi tectures to provide effective and flexible action selection

On ecological conceptualizations of perceptual systems and action systems

This article examines Gibson's concept of perceptual system and Reed's concept of action system. After discussing several assumptions underlying these concepts, the ontological status of these systems is considered. It is argued that perceptual systems and action systems should be conceptualized neither as parts of an animal's body nor as softly (temporarily) assembled devices; rather, they are best understood as animals' abilities to achieve functional relationships, that is, as dispositional properties. This conceptualization entails that these systems are relatively permanent properties of the animal that are causally supported by, though not identical to, anatomical substrates. Further, it entails that it is the animal that perceives and acts, not its perceptual and action systems

Spatial representation for navigation in animats

This article considers the problem of spatial representation for animat navigation systems. It is proposed that the global navigation task, or "wayfinding, " is best supported by multiple interacting subsystems, each of which builds its own partial representation of relevant world knowledge. Evidence from the study of animal navigation is reviewed to demonstrate that similar principles underlie the wayfinding behavior of animals, including humans. A simulated wayfinding system is described that embodies and illustrates several of the themes identified with animat navigation. This system constructs a network of partial models of the quantitative spatial relations between groups of salient landmarks. Navigation tasks are solved by propagating egocentric view information through this network, using a simple but effective heuristic to arbitrate between multiple solutions

Robert Rescorla: Time, Information and Contingency

Rescorla’s first theoretical and experimental papers on the truly random control (random, independent presentations of CSs and USs) showed that associative learning was driven by contingency, that is, by the information that events at one time provide about events located elsewhere in time. This discovery has revolutionary neurobiological and philosophical implications. The problem was that Rescorla was unable to derive a function that mapped conditional probabilities into contingencies. Rescorla and Wagner (1972) proposed a hugely influential model for explaining Rescorla’s results, but their model ignored his earlier insights about time, temporal order, information and contingency in conditioning. Their paper pioneered an empirically indefensible treatment of time that has continued in associative theorizing down to the present day. A key to a more defensible approach to the cue competition problem (aka the temporal assignment of credit problem) in Pavlovian and instrumental conditioning is to measure the information that cues and responses provide about the wait for reinforcement and the information that reinforcement provides about the recency of a response.Los primeros artículos teóricos y experimentales de Rescorla sobre el control verdaderamente aleatorio (presentaciones aleatorias independientes de ECs y EIs) mostraron que el aprendizaje asociativo estaba impulsado por la contingencia, es decir, por la información que los eventos en un momento proporcionan sobre eventos ubicados en otro lugar en el tiempo. Este descubrimiento tiene implicaciones filosóficas y neurobiológicas revolucionarias. El problema fue que Rescorla fue incapaz de derivar una función que determinara la correspondencia entre probabilidades condicionales y contingencias. Rescorla y Wagner (1972) propusieron un modelo enormemente influyente para explicar los resultados de Rescorla, pero su modelo ignoró sus ideas anteriores sobre el tiempo, el orden temporal, la información y la contingencia en el condicionamiento. Su artículo fue pionero en un tratamiento empíricamente indefendible del tiempo que ha continuado en la teoría asociativa hasta el día de hoy. Una clave para un enfoque más defendible del problema de la competencia estimular (también conocido como el problema de la asignación temporal de crédito) en el condicionamiento pavloviano e instrumental es medir la información que proporcionan las señales y respuestas sobre la expectativa del refuerzo y la información que proporciona el refuerzo sobre la recencia de una respuesta