Showing papers on "Algorithmic learning theory published in 1979"

A Study of Complex Learning: Theory and Methodologies

Abstract: : This paper presents an analysis and model of the cognitive processes underlying complex learning situations. A theory is proposed that attempts to specify particular internal knowledge structures generated and modified during instruction, and to use them to explain specific difficulties that the learner experiences and also the overall progress being made. The theory states that (1) the underlying process reflects largely the prior knowledge structures of the student interacting with the information implied by the instruction; (2) the learning mechanisms involved are mostly simple and automatic; (3) the key information within the knowledge structures which allows complex learning to occur is the similarity between higher-order structures. This theory was applied to novices learning to use a computer text editor by reading a basic instruction manual and completing some exercises. After each sentence of instruction, they were asked to describe their current understanding, any difficulties they were aware of, and their expectations about what would follow. Their protocols were analyzed for evidence of underlying cognitive processes. These learning processes and the associated knowledge structures on which they operate were then modeled in terms of the theory at several levels of detail. Several issues of knowledge representation related to the model are discussed and possible solutions proposed.

Learning under a VEDIC teacher

Abstract: The problem of parametric learning under a vicissitudinous teacher,i.e., a teacher with unknown variable characteristics, is the topic of this study. The concept central to the technique developed here is that learning the variable characteristics of the teacher aids the parametric learning under such vicissitudinous environment. This is demonstrated effectively through presentation of simulation results. It is shown that the efficiency of the parametric learning under randomly varying levels of supervision is significantly enhanced by tracking the variable characteristics of the VEDIC teacher (for each pattern class) during the learning process.

Mathematical learning theory: a formalized, axiomatic, abstract approach

Abstract: An abstract formalism is presented wherein a mathematical learning theory is explored Numerous examples from the literature are presented demonstrating how our axiomatic framework formally unifies diverse examples of pattern recognition Our principal result, the adaptive learning theorem , discusses the expected waiting time of different learning machines Roughly speaking it states that all algorithms for the induction of boolean relationships between a dependent binary parameter and a finite preassigned set of independent parameters have asymptotically identical average rates of learning We also give a lower bound for the average learning speed as well as necessary and sufficient conditions for a machine to achieve it We discuss applications of our methods to classical pattern recognition problems as well as possible application to more complicated research problems Our principal mathematical innovation is a fruitful correspondence between probability spaces and labeled tree representations

Of Logic, Learning, and Language

Abstract: “Of Logic,” Stuart Mill noted in his Inaugural Address at St. Andrews1 in 1867, “I venture to say, even if limited to that of mere ratiocination, the theory of names, propositions, and the syllogisms, that there is no part of intellectual education which is of greater value, or whose place can so ill be supplied by anything else.” The “theory of names” may perhaps be construed, in more modern terms, as the metalogical theory of reference or designational semantics. The theory of “mere ratiocination,” of “propositions,” and of the syllogism, is presumably wholly contained within first-order logic, that is, the theory of the truth-functional connectives, of quantifiers, and (perhaps) of identity. Thus Mill’s splendid comments may without distortion be viewed in the light of the newer developments in logical and metalogical theory.