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Learning and Unlearning Mechanisms in Animats and Animals

The Queen's University of Belfast

Tom Ziemke

University of Skövde

This paper addresses the assumption, implicit in many robot and animat models of learning, that learning and unlearning are a pair of symmetrical processes. Unlearning mechanisms supposedly erase or remove existing learning because it is no longer relevant. Whether learning and unlearning result from the operation of symmetrical and antagonistic processes is an issue which has had a long but uneven history in animal and human psychology. This history is briefly recapitulated here. In particular, there is a contrast in the significance of the antagonistic processes model in the area of motivation compared to associative learning which has theoretical significance. For example, animat modelers frequently adopt a generic strengthening and weakening mechanism for all forms of learning and motivation representations without any consideration for its biological and psychological validity. In order to evaluate and question this, we examine the unlearning concept in a number of artefactual models drawn from a range of robotic and artificial life perspectives, and discuss their validity in terms of contemporary models of animal learning and motivation. Finally, we outline an alternative view of learning/unlearning, based on a recent contingency model of causality learning in humans, which does not rely on antagonistic processes and may have applications for artefacts.

Key Words: Learning/unlearning • strengthening and weakening mechanisms • motivation • dual- contingencies • causality

Adaptive Behavior, Vol. 8, No. 2, 97-127 (2000)
DOI: 10.1177/105971230000800202


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