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Turnkey tutorials with Simbrain for teaching students about connectionist neural networks

Turnkey tutorials with Simbrain for teaching students about connectionist neural networks. Alex O. Holcombe Jeffrey Yoshimi Psychology, University of Sydney University of California, Merced.

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Turnkey tutorials with Simbrain for teaching students about connectionist neural networks

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  1. Turnkey tutorials with Simbrain for teaching students about connectionist neural networks Alex O. Holcombe Jeffrey Yoshimi Psychology, University of Sydney University of California, Merced Many neuroscience students graduate without a firm understanding of how networks of connected neurons could mediate adaptive behaviour. Our two 50-minute tutorials (www.psych.usyd.edu.au/staff/alexh/teaching/neuralNets/) provides undergraduates with an interactive, engaging experience that facilitates understanding. 1 2 3 Tutorial: Simple chasing behaviour Tutorial: Auto-associative memory • Step-by-step instructions lead students to train an auto-associative network with simple patterns • This tutorial teaches: • Hebbian learning • Memory as pattern of synaptic weights • Pattern completion • Interference between overlapping memories Step-by-step instructions lead students through incremental creation of the connectionist network. The top layer are motor neurons that control the movements of the blue boy in the virtual world. • Students have fun as they wire the network so that the boy will accomplish the goal of chasing the two girls. In following the instructions, and in tinkering with the network, students learn: • The summate-and-threshold activation rule • How simple connections can result in goal-directed behaviour • The concept of exclusive-or (instantiated here as ‘chase blonde or brunette but not if they are together at the same party’) • How a ‘hidden-layer’ neuron with simple connections can compute exclusive-or Download this free software and use it in your classes! http://simbrain.net/ans alex.holcombe@sydney.edu.au • (http://simbrain.net) is • Java software that runs on Windows, Mac, or Linux • Neural network simulation software • Open Source • So easy and visual that students quickly grasp what’s going on • The two tutorials described here are • Free • Battle-tested and refined through past use in 3rd-year psychology classes • Easily modifiable and expandable • Web pages (at http://simbrain.net/ans) with step-by-step instructions • All accomplished via simple point-and-click steps and menu items You want neurons that spike? As well as modeling these abstracted connectionist units, SimBrain can model spiking neurons. • Contact us about developing related lessons! • Ask me about the evidencechart.com teaching project

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