Archive for 2003
Strength or Accuracy: Credit Assignment in Learning Classifier Systems
10 December 2003
Machine learning promises both to create machine intelligence and to shed light on natural intelligence. A fundamental issue for either endevour is that of credit assignment, which we can pose as follows: how can we credit individual components of a complex adaptive system for their often subtle effects on the world? For example, in a game of chess, how did each move (and the reasoning behind it) contribute to the outcome? This text studies aspects of credit assignment in learning classifier systems, which combine evolutionary algorithms with reinforcement learning methods to address a range of tasks from pattern classification to stochastic control to simulation of learning in animals. Credit assignment in classifier systems is complicated by two features: 1) their components are frequently modified by evolutionary search, and 2) components tend to interact. Classifier systems are re-examined from first principles and the result is, primarily, a formalization of learning in these systems, and a body of theory relating types of classifier systems, learning tasks, and credit assignment pathologies. Most significantly, it is shown that both of the main approaches have difficulties with certain tasks, which the other type does not. This book is written by Tim Kovacs.
Anticipatory Behavior in Adaptive Learning Systems
31 May 2003
This book edited by Martin Butz, Olivier Sigaud, and Pierre Gérard addresses the interdisciplinary topic of anticipation, attracting attention from computer scientists, psychologists, philosophers, neuroscientists, and biologists is a rather new and often misunderstood matter of research. This book attempts to establish anticipation as a research topic and encourage further research and development work.
First, the book presents philosophical thoughts and concepts to stimulate the reader’s concern about the topic. Fundamental cognitive psychology experiments then confirm the existence of anticipatory behavior in animals and humans and outline a first framework of anticipatory learning and behavior. Next, several distinctions and frameworks of anticipatory processes are discussed, including first implementations of these concepts. Finally, several anticipatory systems and studies on anticipatory behavior are presented.