U. Herkenrath - Böcker

This volume contains most of the contributions presented at the conference "Mathematical Learning Models - Theory and Algorithms". The conference was organized by the Institute of Applied Mathematics of the University of Bonn under the auspices of the Sonderforschungs­ bereich 72. It took place in the Physikzentrum in Bad Honnef near to Bonn from May 3 - May 7, 1982. The idea of the organizers was to bring together experts who work on very related problems, but partially by using different approaches. The main subjects of the program were: - mathematical learning models, - bandit problems, - stochastic approximation procedures, - sequential decision processes with unknown law of nature. We felt that in a sense "learning" was a common concept for all these branches. In the contributions the state of the art in the above topics was presented from different pOints of view with special regard to recent advances. The exchange of results and opinions was continued in many fruitful and vivid discussions. The atmosphere of the conference center offered a suitable and pleasant framework for the scientific program. We express our gratitude to all contributors for making the con­ ference successful. Simultaneously we hope that further work on the above mentioned field has been stimulated.