Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Connectionist simulations of children's acquisition of velocity (v), time (t), and distance (d) concepts were conducted using a generative algorithm, cascadecorrelation (Fahlman & Lebiere, 1990). Diagnosis of network rules were consistent with the developmental course of children's concepts (Wilkening. 1981, 1982) and predicted some new stages as well. Networks integrated the defining dimensions of the concepts first by identity rules (e.g.. v = d), then additive rules (e.g., v = d-t), and finally multiplicative rules (e.g., v = d/t). Psychological effects of differential memory demands were also simulated. It is argued that cascade-correlation implements an explicit mechanism of developmental change involving incremental learning and qualitative increases in representational power.