CATEGORIZATION DYNAMICS IN A HYBRID CONNECTIONIST MODEL

拟议的研究探索了混合系统解释正常人类类别学习行为的潜力。 类别学习是指一个人必须学会将刺激分类为离散组的任何情况，例如医学生必须学会将症状集合分类为疾病类别。 建议的研究结合了一个混合的，规则加范例模型的分类开发的埃里克森和Kruschke与模型的知觉选择反应时间行为开发的亚瑟和麦克莱兰。 这个新的动态模型将通过将其应用于四个类别学习实验的数据来进行测试。 前三个实验涉及规则加例外。 在前两个，人们学习分类的方式可分离的和完整的维度刺激在这种设置将进行评估。 在第三，响应信号范例将被用来中断的人，而他们正在进行分类，以评估如何处理优先级随着时间的推移规则和基于范例的表示之间的变化。 最后一个实验评估了维度注意是否像视觉空间注意一样受到启动的影响。这项拟议中的研究与我们对心理健康的了解有关，因为它将有助于确定正常成年人的潜在机制。 此外，在一定程度上，证据表明，基于规则和范例的处理组件是可分离的，这项研究将有广泛的影响正常人和那些有精神挑战或脑损伤的教学方法和治疗。

The proposed research explores the potential of hybrid systems to account for normal human category-learning behavior. Category learning refers to any situation in which a person must learn to classify stimuli into discrete groups, such as a medical student who must learn to classify collections of symptoms into disease categories. The proposed research combines a hybrid, rule-plus- exemplar model of categorization developed by Erickson and Kruschke with a model of perceptual choice reaction time behavior developed by Usher and McClelland. This new, dynamic model will be tested by applying it to data from four category-learning experiments. The first three experiments involve a rule plus exceptions. In the first two, the way people learn to classify separable- and integral-dimension stimuli in this setting will be evaluated. In the third, a response-signal paradigm will be used to interrupt people while they are making classification in order to evaluate how processing priorities change over time between rule- and exemplar-based representations. The final experiment evaluates whether dimensional attention is subject to priming as is visual spatial attention. The proposed research is relevant to our knowledge of mental health insofar as it will help identify underlying mechanisms in normal adults. Moreover, to the degree that evidence is obtained showing that rule- and exemplar-based processing components are dissociable, this research will have broad implications for teaching methods and therapies for both normals and those with mental challenges or brain damage.