{"pk":24759,"title":"Learning abstractions from discrete sequences","subtitle":null,"abstract":"Understanding abstraction is a stepping stone towards understanding intelligence. We ask the question: How do abstract representations arise when learning sequences? From a normative perspective, we show that abstraction is necessary for an intelligent agent when the perceptual sequence contains objects of similar interaction properties appearing in identical contexts. A rational agent should identify categories of objects of similar properties as an abstract concept, enabling the discovery of higher-order sequential relations that span a longer part of the sequence. We propose a hierarchical variable learning model (HVM) that learns chunks and abstract concepts from sequential data in a cognitively plausible manner. HVM gradually discovers abstraction via a conjunction of variable discovery and chunking, resembling the process of concept discovery during development. In a sequence recall experiment that demands learning and transferring variables, we observe that the model's sequence complexity can explain human behavior in a sequence memorization experiment.","language":"eng","license":{"name":"","short_name":"","text":null,"url":""},"keywords":[{"word":"Artificial Intelligence; Cognitive Neuroscience; Computer Science; Psychology; Analogy; Concepts and categories; Language learning; Memory; Statistical learning; Symbolic computational modeling"}],"section":"Abstracts","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9hx9g7n0","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Shuchen","middle_name":"","last_name":"Wu","name_suffix":"","institution":"Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics","department":""},{"first_name":"Mirko","middle_name":"","last_name":"Thalmann","name_suffix":"","institution":"Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics","department":""},{"first_name":"Eric","middle_name":"","last_name":"Schulz","name_suffix":"","institution":"Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics","department":""}],"date_submitted":null,"date_accepted":null,"date_published":"2024-01-01T18:00:00Z","render_galley":{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cognitivesciencesociety/article/24759/galley/21339/download/"},"galleys":[{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cognitivesciencesociety/article/24759/galley/14357/download/"},{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cognitivesciencesociety/article/24759/galley/18214/download/"},{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cognitivesciencesociety/article/24759/galley/21339/download/"}]}