A Mechanism for Learning, Attention A Mechanism for Learning, Attention Switching, and ConsciousnessSwitching, and Consciousness
Janusz StarzykSchool of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Ohio University, USA
http://people.ohio.edu/starzykj
October 20, 2010.
AttentionBiological perspectiveEmergence of consciousnessFunctional requirementsComputational model of consciousnessAttention switchingMental saccadesImplicationsSummary
OutlineOutline
Photo: https://www.adbusters.org/magazine/87/philosophy-zero-point.html
How a single thought emerges
in your brain?What motivates you to learn or
do anything?
Big QuestionsBig Questions
Photo: http://tsvetankapetrova.wordpress.com/2009/06/30/5-setbacks-that-stop-you-big-time/
How can you switch your attention from one activity to
another?What is necessary for cognition, intelligence, and
consciousness? These are but few questions important to philosophers,
cognitive neuroscientists, psychologists, artificial intelligence
researchers, etc.
Can computational models be
provided that demonstrate some of
these phenomena?Can we make a practical use
of them in autonomous machines
working in real time in natural
environments? This talk will address some of
these questions.
Big QuestionsBig Questions
http://www.geneang.com/Presence_Healing,_LLC/Neuroscience_of_Consciousness.html
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AttentionAttention
The term attention is used when there is a clear voluntary act. We ask people to pay attention and they can chose to do so or not.
Voluntary attention is involved in preparing and applying goal directed selection for stimuli and responses.
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AttentionAttention
Attention selects information for cognitive process Selection is driven by perceptions, emotions, motivations and is under
executive control. Without flexible, voluntary attention, we would not be able to change
behavior or deal with unexpected emergencies or opportunities. Without stimulus-driven attention we would not be able to respond
quickly to significant external events. Thus we need both voluntary and automatic attention.
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Brain basis of attentionBrain basis of attention
Attention can be based on internal goals (finding a friend in the crowd) or external environment (alarm, bright colors)
William James wrote that attention helps to: Perceive Conceive Distinguish Remember Shorten reaction time
Attention to a location improves the accuracy and speed of detecting target at this location.
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Brain basis of attentionBrain basis of attention
Maintaining attention against distraction requires a significant effort; E.g. trying to study when your roommate plays a loud music
Thus mental effort comes from struggle between voluntary (goal driven) and automatic attention.
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Brain basis of consciousnessBrain basis of consciousness Conscious cognition is close to attention, but not the same. You can tell people – please pay attention but not - please be conscious. You may be aware (conscious) of reading this text but you may be not
aware of the touch of your chair, gravitational forces, background conversation, your feelings for a friend, or your major life goals.
Consciousness is not just a passive experience of sensory inputs, but an active involvement and perception.
“Self "-related phenomena such as preference, self-recognition, reflection, and planning are central to an understanding of consciousness.
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Differences between conscious and
unconscious phenomenaConscious Unconscious 1. Explicit cognition Implicit cognition 2. Immediate memory Longer term memory 3. Novel, informative, and Routine, predictable,
significant events and nonsignificant events 4. Attended information Unattended information 5. Focal contents Fringe contents (e.g., familiarity) 6. Declarative memory Procedural memory
(facts, etc.) (skills, etc.) 7. Effortful tasks Spontaneous/automatic
tasks 8. Remembering (recall) Knowing (recognition) 9. Available memories Unavailable memories
ConsciousnessConsciousness
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Differences between conscious and
unconscious phenomenaConscious Unconscious 10. Strategic control Automatic control 11. Grammatical strings Implicit underlying
grammars 12. Rehearsed items in Unrehearsed items in
Working Memory Working Memory 13. Wakefulness and Deep sleep, coma, sedation
dreams (cortical arousal) (cortical slow waves) 14. Explicit inferences Automatic inferences 15. Episodic memory Semantic memory
(autobiographical) (conceptual knowledge) 16. Intentional learning Incidental learning 17. Normal vision Blindsight (cortical blindness)
ConsciousnessConsciousness
Evolution and consciousnessEvolution and consciousness – appearance and evolution of consciousness– appearance and evolution of consciousness
Living Being Evolutionary traitsAnalogous feasibility in machines
Human
Beings
Fully developed cross-modal representation
Sensory capabilities: auditory, taste, touch, vision, etc.
Pre-frontal cortex: planning, thought, motivation
Impossible at
present
Hedgehog
(earliest
mammals)
Cross-modal representation
Sensory capabilities: auditory, touch, vision (less
developed), etc.
Small frontal cortex
Impossible at
present
Birds
Primitive cross-modal representation
Sensory capabilities: auditory, touch, vision, olfactory.
Primitive associative memory
Associative
memories
Photos: http://images.google.com/
Living Being Evolutionary traitsAnalogous feasibility in machines
Reptiles*Olfactory system
Primitive vision
Computer vision (emerging)
Hagfish (early vertebrate)
Primitive olfactory system
Primitive nervous system
Artificial neural networks
Lower level animals
(hydra, sponge, etc.)
Sensory motor units
Point to point nervous system
Mechanical or electronic control systems
* inconclusive\consciousness in transition
Photos: http://images.google.com/
Evolution and consciousnessEvolution and consciousness – absence of consciousness– absence of consciousness
Emergence of ConsciousnessEmergence of Consciousness
Week Human Fetus brain development
6 Cortical cells come at the correct position
20 Cortical region is insulated with myelin sheath
25 Development of local connections between neurons
30 Fetus’ brain generates electrical wave patterns
Photos: http://daymix.com/Fetus-Brain-Development/http://www.humanillnesses.com/Behavioral-Health-A-Br/The-Brain-and-Nervous-System.html?Comments[do]=mod&Comments[id]=1
Brain is self-organizing and sparse
Human Brain at Birth 6 Years Old 14 Years Old
Rethinking the Brain, Families and Work Institute, Rima Shore, 1997.
Emergence of ConsciousnessEmergence of Consciousness
Thompson, R. A., & Nelson, C. A. (2001). Developmental science and the media: Early brain development. American Psychologist, 56(1), 5-15.
Synaptic Density over the LifespanSynaptic Density over the Lifespan
Conclusion : Consciousness emerges gradually
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1. Planning, setting goals and initiating actions2. Monitoring outcomes and adapting to errors3. Mental effort in pursuing difficult goals4. Having motivations5. Initiating speech and visual imagery6. Recognizing other’s people’s goals7. Engaging in social cooperation and competition8. Feeling and regulating emotions 9. Storing and updating working memory10. Active thinking11. Enabling conscious experiences12. Sustained attention in the face of distraction13. Switching attention14. Decision making and changing strategies15. Planning and sequencing actions16. Unifying the syntax and meaning of language17. Resolving competition between plans
csiwebcomics.com
Frontal lobe functionsFrontal lobe functions
Nobody has a slightest idea of how anything material can be conscious – Jerry Alan Fodor prof. of philosophy and cognitive science at Rutgers
The quality or state of being aware especially of something within oneself
- Merriam Webster Dictionary
…our subjective experience or conscious state involving awareness, attention, and self reference
– prof. Jeanette Norden neuroscientist in Vanderbilt . Consciousness is a dynamic process and it changes with
development of brain. Further, at macro-level there is no consciousness centre and at micro-level there are no committed neurons or genes dedicated to consciousness – prof. Susan Greenfield neuroscientist director of Royal Institution GB
Description of ConsciousnessDescription of Consciousness
1.Conscious system is aware of past and present and is capable of critical analysis;
2.is aware of the environment in which it resides;
3.has a perception of its internal states
4.is capable to predict and explain current and past events;
5.is capable of autonomous construction of future actions;
6.can utilize past actions in the formulation of future plans:
7.is able to locate itself in its relationship to other entities;
8.can generate an internal representation of itself and its environment
9.is capable of autonomously and selectively directing its attention to address current important situations.
Conscious System RequirementsConscious System Requirements
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Neural model for consciousnessNeural model for consciousness A neural net architecture
for attention and visual consciousness. Visual information flows
from V1 to areas V2-V4, and finally IT where objects are detected.
Each area has its inhibitory neurons to sharpen differences at that level. Posterior parietal neurons
(PP) bias visual neurons that detect the object in that spatial location.
Prefrontal neurons in area 46 are involved in voluntary attentional selection.
Attention and conscious flows.
Proposed approach to Proposed approach to machine consciousnessmachine consciousnessDefine consciousness in functional terms
Identify minimum functional requirements for consciousness
Identify functional blocks, their roles, their inter-relationships
Propose a computational model of a conscious machine
Photo: http://www.theglobalintelligencer.com/aug2007/fringe
Definition of Machine ConsciousnessDefinition of Machine Consciousness
Consciousness is attention driven cognitive perception
motivations, thoughts, plans and action monitoring.
A machine is conscious IFF besides ability to perceive, act,
learn and remember, it has a central executive mechanism
that controls all the processes (conscious or subconscious)
of the machine;
Photo: www.spectrum.ieee.org/.../biorobot11f-thumb.jpg
Consciousness requires– Intelligence (ability)– Awareness (state)
Not necessary alive
How to model consciousness?
Consciousness:Consciousness:
Intelligence
Central executive
Attention and attention switching
Mental saccades
Cognitive perception
Cognitive action control
Photo: http://eduspaces.net/csessums/weblog/11712.html
Consciousness: Consciousness: functional requirementsfunctional requirements
Computational Model of Machine ConsciousnessComputational Model of Machine Consciousness
Semantic memory
Sensory processors
Data encoders/ decoders
Sensory units
Motor skills
Motor processors
Data encoders/ decoders
Motor units
Emotions, rewards, and sub-cortical processing
Attention switching
Action monitoring
Motivation and goal processor
Planning and thinking
Episodic memory
Queuing and organization of episodes
Episodic Memory & Learning
Central Executive
Sensory-motor
Inspiration: human brainInspiration: human brainPhoto (brain): http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Neuronal_correlates_of_consciousness
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Sensory and Motor HierarchiesSensory and Motor Hierarchies Sensory and motor
systems appear to be arranged in hierarchies with information flowing between each level of the sensory and motor hierarchies.
Sensory- Motor BlockSensory- Motor BlockSemantic memory
Sensory processors
Data encoders/ decoders
Sensory units
Motor skills
Motor processors
Data encoders/ decoders
Motor units
Emotions, rewards, and sub-cortical processing
Sensory-motor
sensory processors integrated with semantic memorymotor processors integrated with motor skillssub-cortical processors integrated with emotions and rewards
Central ExecutiveCentral ExecutivePlatform for the emergence, control, and manifestation of consciousnessControls its conscious and subconscious processesIs driven by
attention switching learning mechanism creation and selection of
motivations and goals
ahsmail.uwaterloo.ca/kin356/cexec/cexec.htm
Attention switching
Action monitoring
Motivation and goal processor
Planning and thinking
Central Executive
Taskso cognitive perceptiono attentiono attention switchingo motivationo goal creation and selectiono thoughtso planningo learning, etc.
Central ExecutiveCentral Executive
Interacts with other units for o performing its tasks o gathering data o giving directions to other units
No clearly identified decision centerDecisions are influenced by
o competing signals representing motivations, pains, desires, plans, and interrupt signals
• need not be cognitive or consciously realizedo competition can be interrupted by attention switching signal
Attention switching
Action monitoring
Motivation and goal processor
Planning and thinking
Central Executive
Central ExecutiveCentral Executive
Attention is a selective process of cognitive
perception, action and other cognitive experiences like
thoughts, action planning,
expectations, dreams
Attention switching is needed to have a cognitive experience
leads to sequences of cognitive experiences
Comic: http://lonewolflibrarian.wordpress.com/2009/08/05/attention-and-distraction-what-are-you-paying-attention-to-08-05-09/
Attention Switching !!!Attention Switching !!!
Attention Switching !!!Attention Switching !!!Dynamic process resulting from competition between
• representations related to motivations
• sensory inputs
• internal thoughts including spurious signals (like noise).
blog.gigoo.org/.../
Attention Switching !!!Attention Switching !!!
Thus, while paying attention is a conscious experience,
switching attention does not have to be.
May be a result of :
•deliberate cognitive experience (and thus fully conscious signal)
• subconscious process (stimulated by internal or external signals)
Mental SaccadesMental Saccades
This in turn activates memory traces in the global workspace area
that will be used for mental searches (mental saccades).
saccade
John
Input image
Episodic and associative memory network
his wife his house
his dogfriends
business
Spotlight on John
Frontal cortex
Mental saccade
wife house
dogfriends
business
Memory traces in frontal cortex
saccade
John
Input image
Episodic and associative memory network
his wife his house
his dogfriends
business
Spotlight on John
Frontal cortex
Mental saccade
wife house
dogfriends
business
Memory traces in frontal cortex
Selected part of the image resulting from an eye saccade.
Perceived input activates object recognition and associated areas of semantic and episodic memory.
Mental saccades in a conscious machineMental saccades in a conscious machine
Attention spotlight
Mental saccades
Perceptual saccadesChanging perception
Changing environment
Associative memory
Advancement of a goal?
Yes
No
Plan action?
NoYes
Continue search? No
Yes
Action control
Action?
Yes
No
Changing motivation
Learning
Loop 1
Loop 3
Loop 4
Loop 5
Loop 2
Attention spotlight
Mental saccades
Perceptual saccadesChanging perception
Changing environment
Associative memory
Advancement of a goal?
Advancement of a goal?
Yes
No
Plan action?Plan action?
NoYes
Continue search?Continue search? No
Yes
Action control
Action?Action?
Yes
No
Changing motivation
Learning
Loop 1
Loop 3
Loop 4
Loop 5
Loop 2
Computational Model: SummaryComputational Model: SummarySelf-organizing mechanism of emerging motivations and other signals competing for attention is fundamental for conscious machines.A central executive controls conscious and subconscious processes driven by its attention switching mechanism.Attention switching is a dynamic process resulting from competition between representations, sensory inputs and internal thoughtsMental saccades of the working memory are fundamental for cognitive thinking, attention switching, planning, and action monitoring
Photo: http://www.prlog.org/10313829-homeless-man-earns-250000-after-viewing-prosperity-consciousness-video-subliminal-mind-training.html
Computational Model: ImplicationsComputational Model: ImplicationsMotivations for actions are physically distributed
o competing signals are generated in various parts of machine’s mind
Before a winner is selected, machine does not interpret the meaning of the competing signals Cognitive processing is predominantly sequential
o winner of the internal competition is an instantaneous director of the cognitive thought process, before it is replaced by another winner
Top down activation for perception, planning, internal thought or motor functions
o results in conscious experience• decision of what is observed and where is it • planning how to respond
o a train of such experiences constitutes consciousness
ConclusionsConclusions1.Consciousness is computational2.Intelligent machines can be conscious
Sounds like science fiction?Sounds like science fiction?
If you’re trying to look far ahead, and what you see seems like science fiction, it might be wrong.
But if it doesn’t seem like science fiction, it’s definitely wrong.
From presentation by Feresight Institute
Questions ??Questions ??
Photo: http://bajan.wordpress.com/2010/03/03/dont-blame-life-blame-the-way-how-you-live-it/
ReferencesReferences J. A. Fodor, "The big idea: can there be science of the mind," Times
Literary Supplement, pp. 5-7, July 1992. J. Norden, Understanding the brain, Video lecture series. M. Velmans, "Where experiences are: Dualist, physicalist, enactive and
reflexive accounts of phenomenal consciousness," Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, vol. 6, pp. 547-563, 2007
A. Sloman, "Developing concept of consciousness," Behavioral and Brain Sciences, vol. 14 (4), pp. 694-695, Dec 1991.
W. H. Calvin and G. A. Ojemann, Conversation with Neil's brain: the neural nature of thought and language: Addison-Wesley, 1994.
J. Hawkins and S. Blakeslee, On intelligence. New York: Henry Holt & Company, LLC., 2004.
S. Greenfield, The private life of the brain. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2000.
Nisargadatta, I am that. Bombay: Chetana Publishing, 1973. D. C. Dennett, Consciousness Explained, Penguin Press,1993. D. M. Rosenthal, The nature of Mind, Oxford University Press, 1991. B. J. Baars “A cognitive theory of consciousness,” Cambridge
University Press, 1998.Photo: http://s121.photobucket.com/albums/o209/TiTekty/?action=view¤t=hist_sci_image1.jpg
Embodied IntelligenceEmbodied Intelligence
– Mechanism: biological, mechanical or virtual agent
with embodied sensors and actuators– EI acts on environment and perceives its actions– Environment hostility is persistent and stimulates EI to act– Hostility: direct aggression, pain, scarce resources, etc– EI learns so it must have associative self-organizing memory– Knowledge is acquired by EI
Definition Embodied Intelligence (EI) is a
mechanism that learns how to minimize hostility of its environment
Embodiment
Actuators
Sensors
Intelligence core
channel
channel
Embodiment
Sensors
Intelligence core
Environment
channel
channelActuators
Embodiment
Actuators
Sensors
Intelligence core
channel
channel
Embodiment
Sensors
Intelligence core
Environment
channel
channelActuators
Embodiment of a MindEmbodiment of a Mind
Embodiment is a part of the environment that EI controls to interact with the rest of the environment
It contains intelligence core and sensory motor interfaces under its control
Necessary for development of intelligence
Not necessarily constant or in the form of a physical body
Boundary transforms modifying brain’s self-determination
Brain learns own body’s dynamic Self-awareness is a result of
identification with own embodiment Embodiment can be extended by
using tools and machines Successful operation is a function
of correct perception of environment and own embodiment
Embodiment of a MindEmbodiment of a Mind
Motivated LearningMotivated Learning
Various pains and external signals compete for attention. Attention switching results from competition. Cognitive perception is aided by winner of competition.
Definition: Motivated learning (ML) is pain based motivation, goal creation and learning in embodied agent. Machine creates abstract goals based on the
primitive pain signals. It receives internal rewards for satisfying its goals
(both primitive and abstract). ML applies to EI working in a hostile environment.
Reinforcement LearningReinforcement Learning Motivated Learning Motivated Learning Single value function Measurable rewards
Can be optimized
Predictable Objectives set by
designer Maximizes the reward
Potentially unstable
Learning effort increases with complexity
Always active
Multiple value functions One for each goal
Internal rewards Cannot be optimized
Unpredictable Sets its own objectives Solves minimax problem
Always stable
Learns better in complex environment than RL
Acts when needed
http://www.bradfordvts.co.uk/images/goal.jpg