{"pk":32059,"title":"A Symbolic Model of Cognitive Transition","subtitle":null,"abstract":"Study of cognitive development on the balance scale task has inspired a wide range of human and computational work. The task requires that children predict the outcome of placing a discrete number of weights at various distances on either side of a fulcrum. The current project examined the adequacy of the symbolic learning algorithm C4.5 as a model of cognitive transition on this task. Based on a set of novel assumptions, our C4.S simulations were able to exhibit regularities found in the human data including orderly stage progression, U-shaped development, and the torque difference effect. Unlike previous successful models of the task, the current model used a single free parameter, is not restricted in the size of the balance scale that it can accommodate, and does not require the assumption of a highly structured output representation or a training environment biased towards weight or distance information. The model makes a number of predictions differing from those of previous computational efforts.","language":"eng","license":{"name":"","short_name":"","text":null,"url":""},"keywords":[],"section":"Posters","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4689b17n","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"William","middle_name":"C.","last_name":"Schmidt","name_suffix":"","institution":"Department of Psychology, Dalhousie University","department":""},{"first_name":"Charles","middle_name":"X.","last_name":"Ling","name_suffix":"","institution":"Department of Computer Science, Hong Kong University","department":""}],"date_submitted":null,"date_accepted":null,"date_published":"1996-01-01T10:00:00-08:00","render_galley":null,"galleys":[{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cognitivesciencesociety/article/32059/galley/23124/download/"}]}