tdaxp

Three articles this week on working memory.

Three articles today: "Am Embedded-Processes Model of Working Memory" by Nelson Cowan, "Working Memory: The Multiple-Component Model" by Alan D. Baddeley and Robert H. Logie, and "Modeling Working Memory in a Unified Architecture: The ACT-R Perspective" by Marsha C. Lovett, Lynne M. Reder, and Christian Lebiere.

The ACT-R paper (Lovett, et al) is not very relevent to what I am doing. It continues the attempt to apply literal information processing theory to human thinking, in the tradition of George Willer and nowadays of John Robert Anderson. ACT-R, like the other theories, is perhaps better for building a computer that works in ways analogous to the brain rather than understanding the brain itself.

The Baddeley piece was assigned to set the stage for the episode buffer, which he covered in his Nature Reviews Neuroscience article I read a bit ago. So: an OK article, but recognized by everyone (including Baddeley) as out of date.

What was really exciting was Nelson's Cowan "embedded" working memory model, which is actually a dual processing model. Excitingly, it appears to date from the same time as Boyd's final presentation, and even includes orientation! An excerpt:

THe focus of attention is controlled conjointly by voluntary processes (a central executive system) and involuntary processes) the attentional orienting system.)

All of this is exciting to read this morning, especially as this afternoon I present the OODA loop as a "Dual-Processing Theory of Learning" to some colleagues today. Talk about neat!

Evans, J. St. B. T. (2008). Dual-processing accounts of reasoning, judgment, and social cognition. Annual Review of Psychology, 59, doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.59.103006.093629.

John Boyd's OODA Loop is a dual processing model of cognition. The very best discussion of dual processing is Jonathan St. B. T. Evans' "Dual processing accounts of reasoning, judgment and social cognition" (55-page pdf, Annual Review's description) to be published in January 2008, in the Annual Review of Psychology.

The article goes over a tremendous amount of literature in excellent style. Evans synthesizes many sources I've mentioned such as Lieberman's "comparison between thinking and riding a bicycle," and recent work noting the very strong correlation between working memory and IQ . But he puts everything in a larger context, showing how field after field is adopting dual processing systems, and thus coming ever closer to Boyd's OODA model.

If you want to know how people think, Evans' article is the place to start.

"The Origin of Politics: An Evolutionary Theory of Political Behavior," by John Alford and John Hibbing, Perspectives on Politics, Vol 2. No. 4, December 2004, 707-723, http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=266160.

Today's notes are from the John R. Alford and John R. Hibbing piece that preceded their piece "Are Political Orientations Genetically Transmitted?," which was featured on the tdaxp post "The DNA of Politics." In this earlier work they tie together wary cooperation and multilevel selection" to propose a new paradigm for political science. It's so good, it's dangerous.

As with the other work, a finding is that political beliefs are more genetically-based than personal attitudes." As Alford and Hibbing write:

A 1986 study by Martin and colleagues of over 3,800 Australian and British twin pairs reported the following estimates of heritability (on a scale of 0 to 1.0) for the following items: death penalty, 0.51; white superiority, 0.40; royalty, 0.44; apartheid, 0.43; disarmament, 0.38; censorship, 0.41. The heritability estimate for pajama parties, on the other hand, was a mere 0.08. The comparable estimates for the influence of shared environment were: death penalty, 0.00; white superiority, 0.09; royalty, 0.14; apartheid, 0.05; disarmament, 0.00; censorship, 0.03 (but pajama parties, 0.44). (Alford and Hibbing 715)

These can be mapped onto the Orientation stage of John Boyd's OODA Loop



like so:



The three categories allowed by the analysis of twin studies are genetic factors, which are very high for political issues but lower for moral issues and tastes



Social factors, which are very low for political issues (especially hot buttons like the death penalty and the then-issue of South African ) Apartheid but a significant factors in the appropriateness of pajama parties



If there is an uplifting, ennobling finding here, it is the important of non-shared environmental factors, what Boyd would have termed new information, previous experiences, and analyses/synthesis.



The rest of the notes are mad cool, dealing with group selection, problems a SysAdmin force may face, some cool simulations, and other amazing nifty things. They're below the fold.

Chet Richards on Formlessness and Orientation

Describing Chet Richards, Tom Barnett wrote:

Chet, whom I write about in BFA, is an intense fellow who lives and breathes national security like few people you'll meet. He's also more systematic in his thinking on the subject of military strategy than anyone I've ever heard speak, and I've heard a lot.

Dr. Richards recent accomplishment involve applying the logic of John Boyd to business and military strategy. His business-oriented website, Belisarius, was recently featured in a tdaxp article on 5GW, while Chet's military-oriented site Defense and the National Interest has long been on the tdaxp blogroll.

A noted author, Chet's books include Certain to Win: The Strategy of John Boyd Applied to Business and Neither Shall the Sword: Conflict in the Years Ahead.



As Dr. Richards has been kind enough to help tdaxp before, I asked his help when questions on Boydian logic on Liberal Education. So I asked him. Part of his answer surprised me.