Karl F. Wender – författare

Im Grundlagenteil werden die Kernkomponenten, Lernregeln, Netztypen, Eigenschaften und Probleme neuronaler Netze erörtert. Der Anwendungsteil bezieht sich auf aktuelle (kognitions-)psychologische Fragestellungen, die aus der Perspektive neuronaler Netze dargestellt werden. Unter anderem werden das Phänomen der Farbkonstanz, die Durchführung von Routinetätigkeiten sowie neue Erklärungsansätze zur autistischen Entwicklungsstörung und zum seriellen Lernen besprochen. Der dritte Abschnitt des Lehrbuches widmet sich der Datenauswertung mittels neuronaler Netze. Hierbei werden die Softwareprogramme Visual-XSel, MemBrain und SPSS vorgestellt und eingehend behandelt. Im Rahmen einer Diplomarbeit oder in Forschungsprojekten erhobene Datensätze können somit ohne weitere Vorkenntnisse und ohne Rückgriff auf Varianz- bzw. Regressionsanalysen eigenständig ausgewertet werden. Die dritte Auflage wurde überarbeitet und aktualisiert; so wurden etwa im Kapitel zur Datenauswertung Text und Abbildungen zu den Programmen Visual-XSel, MemBrain und SPSS auf den neuesten Stand gebracht.

Spatial cognition is an interdisciplinary research area involving artificial intelligence, cognitive psychology, computational linguistics, geography, mathematics, biology, theoretical computer science, architecture, design, and philosophy of mind. As these different disciplines gain a deeper understanding of their fellow disciplines and their research approaches, they increasingly find ways to combine their insights and to conceive powerful mechanisms to analyze and synthesize cognitive systems. Spatial cognition has now reached a point where we can see how different pieces of the puzzle may fit together to form integrated systems of specialized cognitive components. The research triggers new quests for basic issues of cognition and sparks ideas for the development of technological applications that make use of spatial structures and spatial computation. Potential applications can be found in such diverse areas as autonomous robotics, geographic information systems, locati- based services, spatial task assistance, multi-agent communication, to name but a few. This third volume on Spatial Cognition marks the final phase of the German Spatial Cognition Priority Program. It augments the results presented in the two precursor volumes published in 1998 and 2000, respectively. The interdisciplinary 1 research program was established by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) in 1996 and terminated after six years, the maximum duration of DFG priority programs. The Spatial Cognition Priority Program consists of 17 research projects at 13 research institutions throughout Germany. Besides carrying out research in individual projects and joint research between projects, the program organized ‘topical colloquia’ and annual plenary colloquia, largely with internationalparticipation.

Spatial cognition is an interdisciplinary research area involving artificial intelligence, cognitive psychology, computational linguistics, geography, mathematics, biology, theoretical computer science, architecture, design, and philosophy of mind. As these different disciplines gain a deeper understanding of their fellow disciplines and their research approaches, they increasingly find ways to combine their insights and to conceive powerful mechanisms to analyze and synthesize cognitive systems. Spatial cognition has now reached a point where we can see how different pieces of the puzzle may fit together to form integrated systems of specialized cognitive components. The research triggers new quests for basic issues of cognition and sparks ideas for the development of technological applications that make use of spatial structures and spatial computation. Potential applications can be found in such diverse areas as autonomous robotics, geographic information systems, locati- based services, spatial task assistance, multi-agent communication, to name but a few. This third volume on Spatial Cognition marks the final phase of the German Spatial Cognition Priority Program. It augments the results presented in the two precursor volumes published in 1998 and 2000, respectively. The interdisciplinary 1 research program was established by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) in 1996 and terminated after six years, the maximum duration of DFG priority programs. The Spatial Cognition Priority Program consists of 17 research projects at 13 research institutions throughout Germany. Besides carrying out research in individual projects and joint research between projects, the program organized ‘topical colloquia’ and annual plenary colloquia, largely with internationalparticipation.

Research on spatial cognition is a rapidly evolving interdisciplinary enterprise for the study of spatial representations and cognitive spatial processes, be they real or abstract, human or machine. Spatial cognition brings together a variety of - search methodologies: empirical investigations on human and animal orientation and navigation; studies of communicating spatial knowledge using language and graphical or other pictorial means; the development of formal models for r- resenting and processing spatial knowledge; and computer implementations to solve spatial problems, to simulate human or animal orientation and navigation behavior, or to reproduce spatial communication patterns. These approaches can interact in interesting and useful ways: Results from empirical studies call for formal explanations both of the underlying memory structures and of the processes operating upon them; we can develop and - plement operational computer models obeying the relationships between objects and events described by the formal models; we can empirically test the computer models under a variety of conditions, and we can compare the results to the - sults from the human or animal experiments. A disagreement between these results can provide useful indications towards the re nement of the models.

Spatialcognitionisconcernedwiththewayshumans,animals,ormachinesthink about real or abstract space and also with the ways spatial structures can be used for reasoning. Thus, space is considered both, as an object of cognition and as ameans of cognition. Spatial cognition is an interdisciplinary research areainvolvingapproachesfromarti?cialintelligence,cognitivepsychology,ge- raphy, mathematics, biology, design, theoretical computer science, architecture, andphilosophy.Researchonspatialcognitionhasprogressedrapidlyduringthe past few years. The disciplines contributing to the ?eld have moved closer - getherandbegintospeakacommonlanguage.Theyhavefoundwaysofmerging theresearchresultsobtainedthroughdi?erentapproaches.Thisallowsfordev- oping more sophisticated hybrid approaches that overcome intrinsic limitations of the individual disciplines. Research on spatial cognition has drawn increased attention in recent years foratleastthreedi?erentreasons:(1)basicresearchdimension:thereisagr- ing awareness of the importance of spatial cognitive abilities in biological s- tems, speci?cally with respect to perception and action, to the organization of memory, and to understanding and producing natural language; (2) compu- tionaldimension:spatialrepresentationsandspatialinferencemayprovidesu- ablelimitationsto enhancethe computationale?ciencyforalargeandrelevant class of problems; (3) application dimension: a good understanding of spatial processes is essential for a wide variety of challenging application areas incl- ing Geographic Information Systems (GIS), pedestrian and vehicle navigation aids,autonomousrobots,smartgraphics,medicalsurgery,informationretrieval, virtual reality, Internet navigation, and human-computer interfaces. This is the second volume published in the framework of the Spatial Cog- tion Priority Program. It augments the results presented in Freksa et al. 1998.