This is a book which readers of bionet.neuroscience might find of
interest. For more information please visit
http://www-mitpress.mit.edu/mitp/recent-books/cog/elmrh.html
_Rethinking Innateness: A Connectionist Perspective on Development_
by Jeffrey L. Elman, Elizabeth A. Bates, Mark H. Johnson, Annette
Karmiloff-Smith, Domenico Parisi, Kim Plunkett
Rethinking Innateness asks the question, "What does it really mean to
say that a behavior is innate?" The authors describe a new framework
in which interactions, occurring at all levels, give rise to emergent
forms and behaviors. These outcomes often may be highly constrained
and universal, yet are not themselves directly contained in the genes
in any domain-specific way.
One of the contributions of Rethinking Innateness is a taxonomy of
ways in which a behavior can be innate. These include constraints at
the level of representation, architecture, and timing; typically,
behaviors arise through the interaction of constraints at several of
these levels.
The ideas are explored through dynamic models inspired by a new kind
of "developmental connectionism," a marriage of connectionist models
and developmental neurobiology, forming a new theoretical framework
for the study of behavioral development. While relying heavily on the
conceptual and computational tools provided by connectionism,
Rethinking Innateness also identifies ways in which these tools need
to be enriched by closer attention to biology.
Neural Networks and Connectionist Modeling series. A Bradford Book
December 1996
475 pp.
$45.00
ISBN 0-262-05052-8
MIT Press*55 Hayward Street*Cambridge, MA 02142*(617)625-8569
