Rethinking Innateness: A Connectionist Perspective on Development (Neural Network Modeling and Connectionism) [Paperback]

Jeffrey L. Elman (Author), Elizabeth A. Bates (Author), Mark H. Johnson (Author), Annette Karmiloff-Smith (Author), Domenico Parisi (Author), Kim Plunkett (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 026255030X | ISBN-13: 978-0262550307 | Publication Date: November 28, 1997

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 key 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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Rethinking Innateness is a milestone as important as theappearance ten years ago of the PDP books. More integratedin its structure, more biological in its approach, this bookprovides a new theoretical framework for cognition that isbased on dynamics, growth, and learning. Study this book if youare interested in how minds emerge from developing brains." Terrence J. Sejnowski, Professor, Salk Institute forBiological Studies

About the Author

Jeffrey L. Elman is Professor of Cognitive Science and Chair, Department of Cognitive Science, University of California, San Diego. Elizabeth A. Bates is Professor of Cognitive Science and Professor of Psychology at UCSD. Mark H. Johnson and Annette Karmiloff-Smith are both Senior Research Scientists with Special Appointment, MRC Cognitive Development Unit, London, and Professors of Psychology at University College, London. Domenico Parisi is Senior Researcher, Institute of Psychology, National Research Council, Rome, Italy. Kim Plunkett is University Lecturer in Experimental Psychology, and Fellow of St. Hugh's College, Oxford University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 447 pages
• Publisher: A Bradford Book / The MIT Press (November 28, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 026255030X
• ISBN-13: 978-0262550307
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #742,550 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The most important science book I've read in years, December 31, 2006

By 

Amazon3421 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rethinking Innateness: A Connectionist Perspective on Development (Neural Network Modeling and Connectionism) (Paperback)

I came across this book while studying applied linguistics, and was curious about what Connectionist theory had to say against Noam Chomsky's nativist approach, which is that language is too complex a thing to be learned in the same way that we learn to swim or drive a car, and that it must be genetically ingrained, with a specific "language gene" that determines the fundamental parameters of how all human languages work.

Until reading this, I had heard all the conventional arguments against connectionsim -it was all computers and had nothing to do with the human mind, no computer simulation could ever come close to mimicing the complexity of the human mind, etc.

This book, mostly concerned with human development, has some fascinating and paradigm-changing ideas to add to the debate. If genes are so important, the authors argue, why don't we come out of the womb as fully formed adults with everything we need to know hardwired into us, as some lower species are? The authors show that there are simple flowers that have more genes than we do, demonstrating that gene count isn't the last word on an organism's complexity.

The authors make a powerful case that the state of childhood , and the complex development our minds experience during this time, is the reason that genes with specific codings don't have to do all the work- we are formed in interaction with our environments.

Rather than explaining everything, connectionist models simply demonstrate how, on the simplest level, our minds COULD work. While the models are simple, the results are fascinating. While obviously far less complex, the models really do demonstrate some of the quirks of human learning and acquisition in ways that more rigid, rule-based artificial intelligence doesn't.

I could write more, but this is a sprawling book packed with countless ideas, and even a brief summary would cover several pages. I admit that it can get technical at times, and I had to limit my reading of it to a few pages a day to fully digest it. But if you want to learn about this subject and have the dedication to get through it, it's an extremely worthwhile and rewarding investment of your time.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Very Technical, November 1, 2006

By 

Peter McCluskey (San Bruno, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rethinking Innateness: A Connectionist Perspective on Development (Neural Network Modeling and Connectionism) (Paperback)

This book contains some thoughtful reasons for believing that many evolutionary psychologists overestimate how much information about the human mind is encoded in genes. However, it is mixed in with some highly technical developmental neurobiology that only a few specialists are likely to find interesting.
For nonspecialists, David Buller's book Adapting Minds says similar things about innateness in a style that is more suited for laymen.

16 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Chomsky is dead or at least dying..., October 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Rethinking Innateness: A Connectionist Perspective on Development (Neural Network Modeling and Connectionism) (Paperback)

Grammar isn't encoded in our genomes. It is learned. The beginnings of the proof are here. This is an important book. Read it and it's companion: Exercises in Rethinking Innateness : A Handbook for Connectionist Simulations; which gives you hands on with the models discussed.