Induction: Processes of Inference, Learning, and Discovery (Paperback)

~ John H. Holland (Author), Keith J. Holyoak (Author), Richard E. Nisbett (Author), Paul R. Thagard (Author) "The mother of a four-year-old boy, observing that he has been unusually cranky and obdurate for several days, decides that he has entered a "phase"..." (more)
Key Phrases: unusualness heuristic, interdomain analogies, diachronic rules, Affirming the Consequent, Denying the Antecedent, University of Michigan (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A broad, sweeping inquiry of what concepts are, what learning is, and how it can take place at all.... Induction is a deep synthesis of epistemology, evolution and computation. This path-breaking treatise will undoubtedly come to be recognized as a major step toward an interdisciplinary explanation of mentality"
—Douglas Hofstadter

Product Description

Two psychologists, a computer scientist, and a philosopher have collaborated to present a framework for understanding processes of inductive reasoning and learning in organisms and machines. Theirs is the first major effort to bring the ideas of several disciplines to bear on a subject that has been a topic of investigation since the time of Socrates. The result is an integrated account that treats problem solving and induction in terms of rule­based mental models.

John Holland is Professor of Electrical Engineering at Michigan University. Keith Holyoak is Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Richard Nisbett is Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan and Paul Thagard is Research Scientist at Princeton University's Cognitive Science Laboratory Induction is included in the Computational Models of Cognition and Perception Series. A Bradford Book.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press (March 2, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262580969
• ISBN-13: 978-0262580960
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,014,548 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must for knowledge workers!, May 5, 2003

By	S. van Diessen (The Hague, the Netherlands) - See all my reviews

This book should be 'the bible' for everyone involved in knowledge management processes. Holland, as one of the complexity theory founders, decribes the essentials of how complex adaptive rules, in relation to the variability of the environment, determine knowledge dynamics and learning capabilities.

Key message of the book is the way that processes of induction, both cognitive and subcognitive, determine rule making, rule adaptation and environment modeling.

With this work Holland (et al.) was the first to close the gap between cognition, complex adaptive systems and knowledge processing. He also provides a sound computational base for the theories presented, opening possibilities for implementation of 'the induction theory' in real world applications.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars science book, November 17, 2007

By	Craig A. Coppock "c coppock" (Spokane, Washington USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I wish I had read this book years ago. It help in my quest (research) to understand the Recognition process.