Lecture 1: learning, Memory and Representation

We take in information from the environment in the form of perception (matter, energy) and turns into an internal representation or memory. Likewise, we can affect the environment through our actions. It works in a similar way for animals and robots (they have sensors for perception and actuators)

Manipulation (creating them, combining them, using them for reasoning) of representations (a picture of an eye is a representation of an eye it is different from a real eye)

Animals: Brain, long/short term memory Software: Databases, symbols Distributed system: Paper, brain, disk, environment manipulation

is like a scratch pad (for vision) or a bit of a recording (for hearing) that can be overwritten with new things. it is rewritten every few seconds by new perceptions.

Short term memory is a temporary storage some things end up becoming long term memories

Likely stored here forever, though we might have trouble with retrieval

Episodic memory: memories of things that have happened to you Semantic memories

Includes procedural knowledge: how to do things. Best understood by how we do things with our body. and Implicit knowledge: knowing things like whether something is grammatically correct but not knowing why you know that or making associations with something else

The hippocampus appears to be important for transforming short term memories into long term memories.Procedural memory appears to happen in the cerebellum, the basal ganglia

Hash tables, schemata, frames, scripts, logical sentences, bitmaps, activation patterns, weights in links. This is interesting to cognitive scientists

Disk, flash memory. Usually less important, because this description is not at the cognitive level

Books, Brain, Fingers, Notes, Arrows and signs

Learning is changing memory with the purpose of preparing a system for better action in the future Learning has 2 aspects: changing memories & changing memories for the purpose of being effective in the future

Diminution of a behavioural response with repeated stimulation (E.g., the first time you hear a loud noise, you might jump but afterward you stop jumping (the response/reaction is getting lessened)

When a behavioural response is amplified by repeated exposure to a stimulus (E.g., at first you can barely feel a vibrating phone in your pocket, but eventually, you become very sensitive to it)

Learning to associate two previously unrelated stimuli. Typically, this means that you learn to behave similarly to stimulus B as you do to stimulus A. E.g., the dog learns that when you pick up the leash, a walk is soon to follow. Also, Pavlov’s salivating dogs.

Someone smiles at you when you hold the door for him/her, more likely to open a door again.Introducing something into the environment

Encouraging behaviour by taking away something negative in response to a behaviour

You get burned by touching the hood of a car in the sun. less likely to do this again

Your parents cut off your allowance because you lied. Took away something you liked

Making a behaviour more or less likely to happen in the presence of a stimulus depending on reward, punishment, or taking away a reward or aversive stimulus

Practice involves doing something over and over and learning how to do it better. It uses reinforcement and punishment to hone the skill.

Playing (e.g., chasing, fighting, caretaking, manipulating objects etc.)

gets easier because of automatization. It becomes instinctive, fast, unconscious, and automatic.