Perceptual and Cognitive Processes in Identification and Categorization

9514427 ASHBY本研究将调查用于识别和分类复杂的感知刺激的感知和认知过程。该研究计划将开发和测试一个新的理论，假设类别学习是两个独立的分类系统之间的竞争。一个系统使用可以口头描述的规则，并且可以访问意识（即，语言系统），而另一个可以学习不可能用语言描述的规则（即，隐式系统）。该理论将在三个不同的层次上进行描述。神经心理学的版本将提供一个详细的描述的主要大脑区域和神经通路所使用的独立系统和调解系统之间的竞争。此外，两个独立的数学描述的理论将被开发。一个将提供一个全球层面的动态行为的描述，该理论预测应该发生当人们学习新的类别。另一个将提供更详细的描述，可用于预测逐个尝试的类别学习行为。将进行许多实验来测试该理论的新预测。除了对正常成年人的类别学习进行预测外，该理论还对儿童，老年人，患有重度抑郁症和基底神经节疾病的患者（例如，帕金森氏病和亨廷顿氏病），以及非人类动物。这一研究将有助于我们更好地理解最基本也是最重要的认知过程之一，即范畴化。它也有可能增加我们对几种主要疾病和障碍的认知影响的理解，以及认知如何受到正常衰老过程的影响。这个项目将结合联合收割机广泛的实验与理论研究，严重依赖于数学建模技术和神经科学的最新发现。***

9514427 ASHBY This research will investigate the perceptual and cognitive processes used in the identification and categorization of complex perceptual stimuli. The research program will develop and test a new theory that assumes category learning is a competition between two separate categorization systems. One system uses rules that can be described verbally and has access to consciousness (i.e., the verbal system), whereas the other can learn rules that are impossible to describe verbally (i.e., the implicit system). The theory will be described at three different levels. A neuropsychological version will provide a detailed description of the major brain areas and neural pathways used by the separate systems and that mediate the competition between the systems. In addition, two separate mathematical descriptions of the theory will be developed. One will provide a global level description of the dynamical behavior that the theory predicts should occur when people learn new categories. The other will provide a more detailed description that can be used to predict trial-by-trial category learning behavior. Many experiments will be conducted to test novel predictions of the theory. In addition to making predictions about category learning in normal human adults, the theory also makes specific predictions for children, the elderly, patients suffering from major depression and from diseases of the basal ganglia (e.g., Parkinson's and Huntington's disease), and for nonhuman animals. This research will improve our understanding of one of the most basic and important of cognitive processes, namely categorization. It also has the potential to increase our understanding of the cognitive effects of several major diseases and disorders, and of how cognition is affected by normal aging processes. This project will combine extensive experimentation with theoretical investigations that rely heavily on mathematical modeling techniques and recent discoveries in th e neurosciences. ***