Reviews (14)

The arcane made accessible
On the surface, the book seems focused on computers and even video games.This makes the activities appealing for middle and high school students.However, the ideas in this book are actually relevant to two entirely different fields:1) genetics, and 2) artificial intelligence.Both these fields have at their centers the concept of complexity arising out of simplicity.Students who work their way though the activites in this book will find that Dr. Resnick offers a window into a deep mathematical world that has applications far beyond computers and games.
Great Starting Point in Agent based Modelling
Mitchel Resnick shares a lovely sense of wonder, discovery and fascination in this slim, easily read volume about agent based modelling.Using micro-worlds (termites, ants and other modelling metaphors) Resnick shows us how collective behaviours are more than a simple sum of the parts - and through his experiments using StarLogo programming he shows the nature of emergent behaviours that come through decentralised thinking.
interesting, but describes an old version of the software
This is a book describing the research of a team at MIT using a version of the educational language "Logo". Running in a simple graphical environment which supports multiple parallel operation of code in the same shared space. Write a few lines of code for an "ant", then let 1000 of them loose. The current version of this "StarLogo" system is written in Java, and available as a free download for anyone to play with.Read more

Subjects:  1. Cognitive Psychology    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computer Science    4. Computer-Aided Instruction (General)    5. Computers    6. Data Processing - Parallel Processing    7. Neuropsychology    8. Parallel Processing    9. Psychology    10. Cognition & cognitive psychology    11. Computer modelling & simulation    12. Computers / Computer Science    13. Cybernetics & systems theory   

Reviews (3)

Best introduction to neural network models of cognitive processes
"Computational Explorations in Cognitive Neuroscience" provides a very readable overview of state-of-the-art neural network models for human cognition with an emphasis on both biological plausibility and experimental (psychological/cognitive) evidence.

A new paradigm
In this book, research themes, which include perception, memory, language as well as high-level cognition, are explained in terms of computation.Their theory is based on brain science, computer science, and psychology.Though the authors speculateabout the functions of each part of the brain and the relation among them to some extent, the authors propose a new paradigm to existing sciences.Their integrative approach and method are very simulative, and I've got a lot of hints from this book.But I don't need the usageof particular software, PDP++ in such a theoretical book.The authors explain and demonstrate their models and theories using PDP++ at the end of each chapter.If you want to study how to use PDP++ as well as their theories, this book will be extremely good one.

A new paradigm
In this book, research themes including perception, memory, and language as well as high-level cognition are explained in terms of computation. Their theories are based on brain science, computer science, and psychology. Though the authors speculate about the functions of the brain and the relation among them to some extent, the authors propose a new paradigm to existing sciences. Their integrative approach and method are very simulative, and I've got a lot of hints from this book. But I don't need the usage of particular software, PDP++ in such a theoretical book. The authors explain and demonstrate their models and theories using PDP++ at the end of each chapter. If you want to study how to use PDP++ as well as their theories, this book will be truly excellent. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Cognitive Psychology    2. Cognitive neuroscience    3. Computer simulation    4. Life Sciences - Anatomy & Physiology    5. Medical / Nursing    6. Neural Computing    7. Neural Networks    8. Neural networks (Neurobiology)    9. Neurology - General    10. Neuroscience    11. Psychology    12. Science    13. Cognition & cognitive psychology    14. Computer modelling & simulation    15. Medical / Neuroscience    16. Neurobiological theory    17. Neurology & clinical neurophysiology    18. Neurosciences   

Editorial Review

Douglas Hofstadter, best known for his masterpiece Read more

Reviews (13)

Trivia
This is not a review of the book, but trivia for those interested ~
A serious read for AI wonks
I read this book when it first came out. At the time I had a deep interest in all things AI. The book presents Dr. Hofstadter's experiences (along with those of his graduate students) of implementing creativity modeling systems (and others) at the Fluid Analogies Research Group (FARG). The book is not an easy read. The reader will need to be diligent and not get deterred. The book also is a bit dry in areas, but those who are truly interested in the subject matter will not mind, much.

Too distant from my usual routes ...
Many books by D. Hofstadter are at the top standings of my personal parade, but in reading this book I found myself very likely too distant from my usual interests and preferred styles. The initial part is very interesting, but when the author carries on detailed descriptions about programs' features in conversational shape, I have been quickly bored, and I have given up attentive reading turning to an eagle eye approach. I would have been by far more comfortable with a more formal explanation, because, once I make the effort to follow the thourough description of what and how a program does, it is more convenient to study its algorithms.Read more

Subjects:  1. Analogy    2. Artificial intelligence    3. Cognitive Psychology    4. Cognitive science    5. Computer Books: General    6. Computer simulation    7. General    8. Mind & Body    9. Science    10. Cognition & cognitive psychology    11. Philosophy of mind   

Reviews (5)

An excellent edition, long overdue
Enjoy this profound book by the father of the Digital Age. The Essential Turing is an excellent edition and long overdue. Turing's essential works are finally available in a single volume.Turing is one of the most important thinkers of the 20th century--he was rated up there with Einstein in Time magazine's 'The Century's Greatest Minds'. Copeland's lucid commentaries on Turing's work are fascinating and helpful. OUP is to be congratulated on putting Turing into the hands of the popular science book-buyer at long last.

a long overdue book
A long overdue book. Copeland collects together Turing's greatest papers. As in where Turing tackled the fundamentals of what is now called a Turing machine - ie. a universal computer. Plus other papers where Turing ruminated on artificial intelligence, and founded that field. Plus coming up with the Turing Test for AI.
Most Accessible Introduction to Turing
This is a terrific book. Turing is one of the most important figures of our time.Copeland's lucid and helpful introductions to Turing's key works make fascinating reading.(The hundreds of footnotes are testimony to the depth of scholarship that underlies Copeland's smooth prose.)Copeland makes Turing, and so the origins of the digital age, accessible to all. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Artificial intelligence    2. Enigma cipher system    3. General    4. Literature - Classics / Criticism    5. Logic, Symbolic and mathematic    6. Logic, Symbolic and mathematical    7. Mathematics    8. Philosophy & Social Aspects    9. Science    10. Science/Mathematics    11. Turing, Alan Mathison,    12. Cognition & cognitive psychology    13. Computer modelling & simulation    14. Mathematical theory of computation    15. Philosophy | Science    16. Science / Philosophy & Social Aspects   

Reviews (2)

Clearity and Simplicity
I'm biased since I have worked with Pentti on his Sparse Distributed Memories at NASA Ames.I would highly recommend you reading his book since he is very careful and general in his use of statistics of large bit vectors.I am continually amazed at how much can be extracted from such vectors and the richness of their properities.SDM is similar to associative memories but simpler in form but just as general.Work is continuing at the Swedish Institute of Computer Science (SICS) on Dr. Kanerva's ideas.

Powerful but simple theory.
Like most powerful theories this one is simple. It describes a mathematical model that mimics some aspects of human memory. The book is also refreshingly concise for an academic work. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Artificial Intelligence    2. Cognitive Psychology    3. Computer Bks - Communications / Networking    4. Computer simulation    5. Computers - Communications / Networking    6. Distributed artificial intelli    7. Distributed artificial intelligence    8. Human Central Nervous System Function    9. Memory    10. Neural Networks    11. Neural computers    12. Personal Growth - Memory Improvement    13. Psychology    14. Cognition & cognitive psychology    15. Psychology & Psychiatry / Cognitive Psychology   

Reviews (1)

at last i see the light
for 2 years i have been searching for textbooks on artificial intelligence that contain actual skills and techniques you can use here and now.so many books on artificial intelligence seem to be all sizzle and no steak.this book is all steak.Read more

Subjects:  1. Brain    2. Cognition    3. Cognitive Psychology    4. Computer simulation    5. Connectionism    6. Health/Fitness    7. Life Sciences - Human Anatomy & Physiology    8. Neuropsychology    9. Neuroscience    10. Psychology    11. Science    12. Cognition & cognitive psychology    13. Neural networks    14. Psychology & Psychiatry / Cognitive Psychology    15. Psychology | Neuropsychology   

Subjects:  1. Cognitive Psychology    2. Language Arts & Disciplines    3. Perception    4. Psychology    5. Speech    6. Speech (Specific Aspects)    7. Speech perception    8. Audio processing: speech recognition & synthesis    9. Cognition & cognitive psychology    10. Computer modelling & simulation    11. Mathematical modelling    12. Pattern recognition    13. Psycholinguistics    14. Psychology & Psychiatry / Cognitive Psychology   

Reviews (1)

A good book on neural learning
After reading the table of contents of this book I came to know that this book is goodin the area of neural learning.Forthmore this book is covering information on unsupervised learning & covering topics likelocal synaptic learning & hebbian learnig.The applicationsfor feature extraction & sensory receptive fields are of my interest. This book is useful for UG & PG students. Thanking you,Read more

Subjects:  1. Coding theory    2. Cognitive Psychology    3. Computer Science    4. Human Nervous System    5. Learning (Psychology)    6. Life Sciences - Human Anatomy & Physiology    7. Medical / Nursing    8. Neural Networks    9. Neural networks (Neurobiology)    10. Neuropsychology    11. Neuroscience    12. Science    13. Science/Mathematics    14. Computer modelling & simulation    15. Mathematical theory of computation    16. Medical / Neuroscience    17. Neurosciences   

Reviews (3)

Reprint for money
Why not just go to the library and pick up volume 1 of the Artificial Life journal. That's all this is. Did someone really have the gall to sell us a journal twice? Yes, Virginia, I guess they did.

GOOD
IT IS GOOD BOOK FOR EDUCATIO

An eclectic gathering of papers on dynamic systems
Langton pulls together a number of interesting papers from the Los Alamos a-life conference, bound with the perspective only he can provide. Great for the technically-minded curious but most promising as storehouse of ideas for experimentors in dynamic adaptive systems. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Artificial Intelligence - General    2. Artificial intelligence    3. Biological systems    4. Biology (Specific Aspects)    5. Computer Books: General    6. Computer Simulation    7. Computers    8. General    9. Life Sciences - Biology - General    10. Simulation methods    11. Technology & Industrial Arts    12. Biotechnology    13. Cognition & cognitive psychology    14. Computers / Artificial Intelligence   

Subjects:  1. Brain    2. Cognition    3. Cognitive Psychology    4. Cognitive science    5. Computer simulation    6. Physiological Psychology    7. Psychology    8. Cognition & cognitive psychology   

Subjects:  1. Cognitive Psychology    2. History & Surveys - Modern    3. Insight    4. Intuition    5. Mental Health    6. Psychology    7. Thought and thinking    8. Philosophy & theory of psychology    9. Social, group or collective psychology   

Subjects:  1. Brain    2. Cognitive Psychology    3. Computer simulation    4. Medical / Nursing    5. Neurophysiology    6. Neuroscience    7. Physiology    8. Psychology    9. Thought and thinking    10. Artificial intelligence    11. Cognition & cognitive psychology    12. Physiological & neuro-psychology    13. Psychology & Psychiatry / Cognitive Psychology   

Subjects:  1. Cognitive neuroscience    2. Human Central Nervous System Function    3. Life Sciences - Human Anatomy & Physiology    4. Neural Networks    5. Neural Networks (Computer)    6. Neural networks (Neurobiology)    7. Neuropsychiatry    8. Neuropsychology    9. Neuroscience    10. Psychology    11. Science    12. Cognition & cognitive psychology    13. Computer modelling & simulation    14. Neurology & clinical neurophysiology    15. Neurosciences    16. Psychology & Psychiatry / Cognitive Psychology   

Reviews (3)

Excellent
This book can be viewed as one of the first attempts to use results from psychology, neuroscience, computer science, and philosophy with the intent of gaining an understanding of how the mind/brain works, but all of this is done within the "computational mind" paradigm. The approach taken by the authors is one of the most honest of those in the literature, for throughout the book they are careful to note just how much evidence there is to support their position(s), and to what extent further work is to done. Philosophically speaking, the authors are clearly in the materialist camp, believing that Cartesian dualism does not cohere with current scientific knowledge. But they state that materialism is not an established fact, allowing the possibility, but not the probability, that dualism may in fact be true. They reject early on though any "arguments from ignorance"in their assertion that just because neuroscience does not have an explanation of consciousness, that such an explanation is impossible. The authors call the failure to be able to think of consciousness in terms of neuronal activity "intuition dissonance", and reject completely its efficacy in establishing the truth of the nature of the mind/brain. a great book
This extremely interesting book integrates our vast knowledge of neuroscience with computational models of perception, sensori-motor integration, memory etc. Good summary of empirical and experimental neuroscience
This book is an excellent follow-up to "Engine of Reason, Seat of the Soul". It gets into the details of what's known about computational neuroscience and the working of the human brain (and other animals ' brains and nervous systems.Great summaries of specific "tricks" of brain processing, e.g., how vison works, etc. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Brain    2. Cerebral Physiology    3. Cognitive Psychology    4. Computer Simulation    5. Computers - Communications / Networking    6. Neural Computing    7. Neural Networks    8. Neural networks (Neurobiology)    9. Neurology - General    10. Neuroscience    11. Psychology    12. physiology    13. Cognition & cognitive psychology    14. Neurology & clinical neurophysiology    15. Neurosciences    16. Psychology & Psychiatry / Cognitive Psychology   

Reviews (1)

Awareness and Its Importance
This book is serious research. Greatly expanding beyond a lot of the consciousness literature, Estep focuses on the scientific evidence to develop a serious theory of human awareness that should be of interest to neuroscientists, surgeons, and ordinary laymen who are sometimes faced with decisions about their own loved ones who may be in comatose or persistent vegetative states. Medical practitioners need to get clear on the parameters of awareness. Estep's work and her extensive research will assist them. Highly recommend this book. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Awareness    2. Cognitive Psychology    3. Computer Books: General    4. Computer Simulation    5. Computers    6. Epistemology    7. Intellect    8. Neuroscience    9. Psychology    10. Epistemology, theory of knowledge    11. Philosophy / Epistemology   

Subjects:  1. Cognitive Psychology    2. Human behavior    3. Industrial & Organizational Psychology    4. Military Science    5. Movements - Behaviorism    6. Organizational behavior    7. Psychology    8. Psychology, Military    9. Simulation methods    10. Artificial intelligence    11. Psychology & Psychiatry / Cognitive Psychology   

Reviews (1)

Summarization according to human experts
Summarizing is the process of reducing the large volume of information in something like a novel or a scientific paper to a short summary or abstract comprising only the most essential points. Summarizing is frequent ineveryday communication, but it is also a professional skill for journalistsand scientific writers. Automated summarizing functions are urgently neededby Internet users who wish to exploit the information available withoutbeing overwhelmed. This book presents the state of the art of summarizingand surveys related research; it deals with everyday and professionalsummarizing as well as computerized approaches. The author focuses indetail on the cognitive process involved and supports this with multimediasimulation system on the accompanying CD-ROM (for Mac OS 7.5 and Windows). ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Abstracting    2. Computer - Internet    3. Computers    4. Education    5. Indexing    6. Indexing And Abstracting    7. Information Storage & Retrieval    8. Information Theory    9. Internet - General    10. Journalism    11. Cognition & cognitive psychology    12. Communication Studies    13. Databases & data structures   

Subjects:  1. Brain    2. Cognition Disorders    3. Computer simulation    4. Congresses    5. Diseases    6. Diseases Of Central Nervous System    7. Health/Fitness    8. Medical    9. Neurology - General    10. Psychoses    11. Neurology & clinical neurophysiology    12. Psychiatry   

Reviews (1)

An essential reading for cognitive tools research.
The first and throughout book on the computer-based cognitive tools. Dividing the research and opinions on two camps, that of student modeller AI camp and the tool oriented camp, the editors attemp to find a middleground for the issues. Read more

Subjects:  1. Artificial intelligence    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computer-assisted instruction    4. Computers - Other Applications    5. Educational Software    6. United States    7. Computer modelling & simulation    8. Computer-aided learning (CAL)    9. Educational systems   

Subjects:  1. Activity programs    2. Education & Training    3. Education / Teaching    4. Methods Of Instruction And Study In Higher Education    5. Physiological Psychology    6. Psychology    7. Simulation methods    8. Study and teaching    9. Study and teaching (Higher)    10. Teaching Methods & Materials - Classroom Planning    11. Teaching Methods & Materials - Social Science    12. Psychology & Psychiatry / Education & Training    13. Teaching of a specific subject