Associative learning for a robot intelligence

by John H. Andreae

The explanation of brain functioning in terms of the association of ideas has been popular since the 17th century. However, recently the process of association has been dismissed as computationally inadequate by prominent cognitive scientists. In this book, a sharper definition of the term "association" is used to revive the process by showing that associative learning can indeed be computationally powerful. A series of simulated robot experiments demonstrates Turing Machine power, a simple form of internal "thinking", incipient communication of intentions, control of a hierarchical task, the emergence of cooperations, and some preliminary steps towards the learning of language. The "innate" endowment of the robot includes the association templates, which drive the associative learning, and a new form of short-term visual memory.