
Between 1980 and 1991 I worked for
the Cardiff data processing division of British Telecom, specialising in the
design and operation of very large databases and management support systems.
Between 1991 and 2010 I lectured in health informatics and cognitive science at
University of Wales Institute, Cardiff (UWIC), specialising in the cognitive
neuropsychology required by Speech and Language Therapists. I am currently
Chief Designer on the Konrad
artificial consciousness project.
CONTACT ME AT smithsrisca@btinternet.com
Konrad is
a state-of-the-art simulation of biological cognition which combines my
database design experience and in-depth understanding of cognition with International
Software Products' CA-IDMS production platform. By focusing on the semantic
network nature of the mind's long-, medium-, and short-term memory systems the Konrad software offers clients and
collaborators a test-bed, complete with detailed print-out, on which they can
explore hypotheses as to mental function which cannot be tested in living
subjects. Project Konrad is animated
cognition taken to the extreme. It is designed around the best models available
from philosophy, neuropsychology, and psycholinguistics, and runs at about
natural speed. Its USP is that it gives you a microscopically detailed hard
copy at the end of each run telling you how it did what it did.

Aneurin is
a work-in-progress online encyclopaedia on the theme of humankind at war,
inspired by the rapidly approaching centenary of the Great War. Each essay
takes an issue of philosophical interest [what is bravery, say, and can it be
taught], and then seeks explanatory insight in the cognitive science
literature. Time and time again the available theory implicates our species'
primate inheritance as a self-indulgent and intolerant man-ape, capable, when
properly primed, of unrestricted cruelty and destruction. The relationship
between our animal emotions and our much-vaunted faculties of intellect is
especially interesting, with the former prevailing over the latter far too
often for us to sleep easily in our beds. Details aside, the individual essays,
each in its own way, reflect upon a common central issue, namely that we really
do need to understand why the War to End
All Wars achieved nothing of the sort, indeed has been followed without
break by a hundred years of accelerating human conflict. WW1, in short, is a
lesson still waiting to be learned, and it would be a fitting tribute to the
millions who suffered at its hands to use its centenary years for this very
purpose.
GO TO PROJECT ANEURIN HOMEPAGE
STUDENT RESOURCES
In my 20 years as
university lecturer I produced a large number of explanatory handouts and
encyclopaedic resources. Most of these began as hard copy material in the
1990s, but were subsequently upgraded for electronic delivery under the Smithsrisca banner between 2000 and
2005. These are indexed below, along with some more recent conference
PowerPoint presentations .....
Artificial Intelligence / Machine Consciousness Series
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Short-Term Memory Subtypes in Computing and
Artificial Intelligence: Part 2 - A Brief History of Computing Technology, 1925 to 1942 |
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Short-Term Memory Subtypes in Computing and
Artificial Intelligence: Part 3 - A Brief History of Computing Technology, 1943 to 1950 |
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Short-Term Memory Subtypes in Computing and
Artificial Intelligence: Part 4 - A Brief History of Computing Technology, 1951 to 1958 |
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Short-Term Memory Subtypes in Computing and
Artificial Intelligence: Part 5 - A Brief History of Computing Technology, 1959 to date |
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Short-Term Memory Subtypes in Computing and
Artificial Intelligence: Part 6 - Memory Subtypes in Computing |
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Database Navigation and the IDMS Semantic Net |
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Short-Term Memory Subtypes in Computing and
Artificial Intelligence: Part 7 - Memory Subtypes in Cognitive Science |
UNDER
CONSTRUCTION - draft and key points available on request from the author |
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A Computer Simulation of Meinong's (1902) Objektiv Stage of Object Perception [CONFERENCE POWERPOINT,
Edinburgh, April 2009] |
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A Demonstration of
Philosopher-Friendly Reductionism in a Computational Model of Cognition [CONFERENCE POWERPOINT,
Oxford, September 2009] |
click here
[this file will
need unzipping before use] |
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The Forensic Ergonomics of Distraction Errors: A Computer Simulation [CONFERENCE POWERPOINT, Keele, April 2010] |
click here
[this file will
need unzipping before use] |
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The Surprisingly Difficult Science of Beautiful
Paintings [EXHIBITION
POWERPOINT, Wrexham Science Festival, July 2012] |
click here **NEW
** |
Our Mental Philosophy Glossary
Here are the
files making up my multi-file navigable data dictionary on the theme of self
and consciousness .....
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Mental
Philosophy Glossary [A/B] |
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Mental
Philosophy Glossary [Case Histories] |
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Mental
Philosophy Glossary [Consciousness] |
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Mental
Philosophy Glossary [C, remaining entries] |
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Mental Philosophy
Glossary [D] |
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Mental
Philosophy Glossary [E/F] |
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Mental Philosophy
Glossary [G/H/I] |
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Mental
Philosophy Glossary [J/K/L] |
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Mental
Philosophy Glossary [M/N/O] |
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Mental
Philosophy Glossary [Persona.....] |
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Mental
Philosophy Glossary [P/Q/R] |
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Mental
Philosophy Glossary [S] |
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Mental
Philosophy Glossary [T to Z] |
Brain and Behaviour Series
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Microanatomy
of the Cerebral Cortex |
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Communication
and the Naked Ape |
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The Motor
Hierarchy |
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Motor
Programming |
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Biological
Cybernetics |
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Hebbian
Theory |
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The Limbic
System, Motivation, and Drive |
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The Pyramidal
and Extra-Pyramidal Motor Systems |
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From Frontal Lobe Syndrome to Dysexecutive Syndrome |
Robotics, Cybernetics, and the Like
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A Brief History of Automata |
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Basics of Cybernetics |
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The Eckert-von Neumann Machine |
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Introduction to Systems Theory |
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Shannonian Communication Theory and Biological
Communication |
click here |
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An Introduction to Data Modelling for Semantic
Network Designers |
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On
database keys, with an application to the Praxisproblem. [CONFERENCE POWERPOINT, Orlando, FL, July 2005] |
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The
problem of context in sentence production - Surely a case to re-convene the
Data Base Task Group? [CONFERENCE
POWERPOINT, Austin, TX, July 2005] |
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How ideas
evolve into speech - A computer animation. [CONFERENCE POWERPOINT, Oxford, September 2005] |
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An Interdisciplinary Validation of the Ego Defence
of Splitting [CONFERENCE
POSTER, Swansea, April 2007] |
e-mail the author |
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Freud as Real-Time Programmer [LECTURE POWERPOINT,
Cardiff, 2008; Aberystwyth, 2008] |
e-mail the author |
Historical Cognitive Models Series (In Timeline Sequence)
I am a keen cognitive
modeller, and included practical modeling skills at a number of points in my
psychology curriculum. My own six-module modular diagram of cognition (Smith, 1993b; Smith and Stringer, 1997; Smith, 1999c; Smith, 2000b;
Smith, 2010c) attempts (a) to locate, and (b) to show the relationship between,
the major types of long-, medium-, and short term memory in a three-level
biological control hierarchy. The following items trace how the story starts .....
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Descartes (1662) - The Philosopher's View |
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Bell-Magendie
(1811) - The Anatomist's View |
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Wernicke (1874) - The Aphasiologist's View |
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Kussmaul (1878) - Early "Cog Neuro" View |
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Charcot's (1883) "Bell" - Early "Cog Neuro" View |
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Lichtheim's (1885) "House" |
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Grashey (1885) |
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James (1890) |
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Freud (1891) |
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Wundt (1902) |
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Freud (1896) - The Psychoanalyst's View |
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Freud (1900) - The Psychoanalyst's View |
Control Hierarchy Models Series (In Timeline Sequence)
.....and the following items bring us fully up to date
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Freud (1933) - The Psychoanalyst's View |
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Craik (1945) - The Pioneer Ergonomist's View |
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Wepman et al (1960) - The Clinician's View |
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Frank (1963) - The Information Scientist's View |
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Reader (1969) - Early Roboticist's View |
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Dennett
(1978) - The Philosopher's View |
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Rasmussen (1983) - The Forensic Ergonomist's View |
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Allport (1985) - The Distributed Semantics View |
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Norman (1990) - The State-of-the-Art View |
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Arkin (1990) - State-of-the-Art Roboticist's View |
click here [scroll to Figure 7] |
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Smith (1993) - The System Analyst's View |
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Frith, Rees, and Friston's (1998) - "Forward
Model" [LECTURE POWERPOINT] |
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Smith (2007-2011) - Project Konrad's View [which incorporates all the above] |
click
here for latest [e-mail the
author for earlier versions] |
Theoretical Cognitive Science
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Education Theory Timeline |
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Experiential Learning: The Knowledge Structures and the Cognitive Processes |
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How to Draw Cognitive Diagrams (with tutorial exercises) |
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Transcoding Models - Introduction and Overview |
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Norman and Bobrow's (1975) Resource Allocation
Theory |
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Speech Errors, Speech Production Models, and Speech Pathology |
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Dyslexia and the Cognitive Science of |
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Neuropsychology/Aphasiology Timeline |
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Neuropsychology/Aphasiology Glossary |
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Memory Glossary |
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Psycholinguistics Glossary |
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Rational Argument Glossary |
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Supervenience Glossary |
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History of Human Writing Systems Glossary |
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An
Introduction to Creativity |
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The Bilingual
Brain (Why Machines Can't Translate for Toffee) [EXHIBITION POWERPOINT
Wrexham Science Festival, 10th March 2008] |
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The
Psychology of Numeracy |
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Mathematics
in the Mind [EXHIBITION POWERPOINT Wrexham Science Festival, 30th March 2009] |
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The Molyneux Question |
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The human operator revisited: Autonomous machines as
equals (or not quite) in the control room of the future [CONFERENCE POWERPOINT, Paris, October 2010] |
click here
[this file will need unzipping before use] |
Modern Psycholinguistic Models Series (In Timeline Sequence)
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Morton (1964) |
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Gough (1972) |
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Marshall and Newcombe (1973) |
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Morton (1979) |
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Morton (1981) |
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Ellis (1982) |
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Roeltgen and Heilman (1985) |
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Crosson (1985) |
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Ellis and
Young (1988) |
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Kay, Lesser, and Coltheart (1992) |
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Coltheart,
Curtis, Atkins, and Haller (1993) |
Perception, Attention, and Memory Models (In Timeline Sequence)
I lectured in cognitive
neuropsychology between 1991 and 2010, and covered all aspects of memory theory,
including the amnesias and the underlying biochemistry. From a theoretical
standpoint, I favour the Lashley-Pribram distributed memory approach (having
been impressed with Karl Pribram's holographic hypothesis ever since it first
appeared back in the 1960s). I also closely follow research into "second
messenger" neurotransmission, because I hold the mechanisms of medium-term
neural sensitisation to be fundamental to the emergence of all complex
cognitive faculties, including abstraction, association, self-awareness, and
consciousness.
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Broadbent (1958) |
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Sperling (1960) |
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Sperling (1963) |
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Sperling (1967) |
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Pribram's
Holonomic Theory of Memory (1969) |
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Atkinson and
Shiffrin (1971) |
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Baddeley
(2000) |
Human Error Series
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Basic Laws of Life and Complex Systems |
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IT Project Management Disasters |
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Systems Thinking: The Knowledge Structures and the
Cognitive Processes |
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Mode Error in System Control |
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Situational Awareness in Effective Command and
Control |
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Military Bungling (including the battles of New
Orleans and Isandhlwana Hill, the Charge of the Light Brigade, Custer's Last
Stand, and the tragic story of USS Vincennes vs Iran Air Flight 655,
1988) |
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Transportation Disasters - Aerospace (including the |
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Transportation Disasters - Maritime (including the Titanic
and Exxon Valdez disasters) |
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Transportation Disasters - Rail |
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The human operator revisited: Autonomous machines as
equals (or not quite) in the control room of the future [CONFERENCE POWERPOINT, Paris, October 2010] |
click here
[this file will need unzipping before use] |
For
20 years I maintained my professionalism as a computer person by active
involvement with the South Wales Branch of the British Computer Society. I served on the branch committee from 1992
to 2011, and was Chairman 1996-1998. I also served 1998-2006 as psychology
advisor to the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists. I hold the Certificate in Training Practice
from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and a postgraduate
diploma in medical education from the Centre
for Medical Education, University of Dundee.
Smith, D.J. (1990). The entity, the
attribute, and the relationship. Paper presented September 1990 to the
British Psychological Society Cognitive Section Annual Conference, Leicester. [This was my first attempt to bring industrial
data modelling techniques to bear on the problems of cognitive theory.]
Smith, D.J. (1991). Suppositions of
belonging: The computational principles of meaning. Paper presented
September 1991 to the British Psychological Society Cognitive Section Annual
Conference, Oxford.
Smith, D.J. (1992). The psychology of
effective college governance: Part 1 - the management skills. Journal of
Further and Higher Education, 16:87-99.
Smith, D.J. (1993a). FETC and the latecomer to
teaching. Journal of the National Association for Staff Development,
28:17-22.
Smith, D.J. (1995a). Professional Development
through Post-Graduate Research Supervision. Journal of the National Staff
Development Agency, 32:24-33.
Smith, D.J. (1997a). The magical name Miller, plus
or minus the umlaut. In Harris, D. (Ed.), Proceedings of the First
International Conference on Engineering Psychology and Cognitive Ergonomics
(Volume 2). Aldershot: Ashgate. [ISBN: 0291398472] [Being the transcript of a paper presented 24th October 1996 to the
First International Conference on Engineering Psychology and Cognitive
Ergonomics, Stratford-upon-Avon.]
Smith, D.J. (1997b). The IDMS set currency and biological memory.
Poster presented 10th March 1997 at the Interdisciplinary Workshop on Robotics,
Biology, and Psychology, Department of Artificial Intelligence, University of
Edinburgh.
ASIDE: I was particularly fortunate during my years with British Telecom to
work on the design, development, and support of a very large CODASYL database
system. The platform used was ICL's IDMS(X), a UK-licensed variant of Computer Associates' CA-IDMS system. This
type of database organises its contents into an intricate network, rather than
into the tabular columns and rows used by more simplistic systems, and in order
to manage the resulting data networks the system software relies upon a number
of clever internal tricks. When I took up cognitive science in 1991, I decided
to look for the biological equivalents of these mechanisms (after all, the mind
had so often been described as a biological database, that it seemed reasonable
to enquire after its database internals). I eventually concluded that the most
compelling similarity was between the IDMS concept of "database
currency" and the biological mechanisms of second messenger
neurotransmission. Both allow their respective systems to maintain a particular
mental theme across a timespan larger than the span of the immediate here and
now, both do this by holding material momentarily somewhere between short term
memory and long term memory, both combine storage and retrieval functions, and
- above all - both exist to help "bind" widely scattered memory
fragments into logical wholes. What CODASYL databases give us, therefore, is a
tangible paradigm for biological consciousness in general, and a working
example of a system architecture which has successfully overcome the
"binding problem" in particular. For the precise argument and
parallel worked examples see Smith (1997a) and Smith (1997e), for the
paradigm's utility in addressing the explanatory gap see Smith (1998c), for the
front runners in mapping the human knowledge network see Doug Lenat's CYC Project, and for an introduction to the binding
problem consult Valerie Gray Hardcastle's Association
for the Scientific Study of Consciousness website.
Smith, D.J. (1997c). Chunking and cognitive efficiency: Some lessons
from the history of military signalling. Paper presented 27th March 1997 to
the 11th Annual Conference of the History and Philosophy of Psychology Section
of the British Psychological Society, York.
Smith, D.J. (1997d). Book Review: "How Brains Think: Evolving
Intelligence, Then and Now", by William H. Calvin, 1996. Journal of
Consciousness Studies, 4:381-382.
Smith, D.J. (1998a). Feedback in speech production. Invited paper
presented 10th April 1998 at the Centre for Neuroscience, University of Florida
Health Science Centre, Gainesville, FL.
Smith, D.J. (1998b). Book Review: "Anthropology at the Edge",
by J. Ian Prattis, 1996. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 5:255.
Smith D.J. (1999a). Freudian structures in
the computational mind: Some lessons from the study of ritual sacrifice.
Cardiff: UWIC. Paper presented 15th April 1999 to the 13th Annual Conference of
the History and Philosophy of Psychology Section of the British Psychological
Society, York.
Smith, D.J. (2000a). A slow-motion video
analysis of information feedback in a computer-animated psycholinguistic model.
Computer-animated poster presented 10th April 2000 at the Tucson 2000 - Towards
a Science of Consciousness conference, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ.
Smith, D.J. (2000b). A slow-motion video analysis of the arrival and
circulation of initially unbinded input within consciousness.
Computer-animated poster presented 30th June 2000 at the Fourth Annual Meeting
of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness, Free University,
Brussels, Belgium.
Smith, D.J. (2000c). Book Review: "Artificial Life: An
Overview", by Christopher G. Langton (Ed.), 1995. Journal of
Consciousness Studies, 7(6):89-91.
Smith, D.J. (2002). Intramodular neurotransmission and the Wichita
Lineman. Poster presented 9th April 2002 at the Tucson 2002 - Towards a
Science of Consciousness conference, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ.
Smith, D.J. (2002).
Book Review: "Painting, Psychoanalysis, and Spirituality", by Stephen
J. Newton, 2001. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 9(3):83-87.
Smith, D.J. (2005).
On database keys, with an application to the Praxisproblem. In Callaos,
N., Lesso, W., and Palesi, M. (Eds.), The 9th World Multi-Conference on
Systemics, Cybernetics, and Informatics, July 10-13, 2005 - Orlando, Florida,
USA (Volume IV). Orlando, FL: International Institute of Informatics and
Systemics. [Play
PowerPoint]
Smith, D.J. (2005).
The problem of context in sentence production - Surely a case to re-convene the
Data Base Task Group? In Chu, H.-W., Savoie, M.J., Sanchez, B., and Hong, S.-M.
(Eds.), The 3rd International Conference on Computing, Communications, and
Control Technologies, July 24-27, 2005 - Austin, Texas, USA (Volume III).
Orlando, FL: International Institute of Informatics and Systemics. [Play PowerPoint]
Smith, D.J. (2005).
How ideas evolve into speech - A computer animation. Paper presented at the 9th
Conference of the Consciousness and Experiential Psychology Section of the British
Psychology Society, St. Anne's College, Oxford, 16th-18th September 2005. [Play PowerPoint]
Smith, D.J.
(2009a). A computer simulation of Meinong's (1902) Objektiv stage of object perception. Paper presented 8th April 2009
to the Annual Conference of the History and Philosophy of Psychology Section of
the British Psychological Society, University of Edinburgh. [Play PowerPoint]
Smith, D.J.
(2009b). A computer simulation of Meinong's (1902) Objektiv stage of object perception. History and Philosophy of Psychology, 11(1): 37-43.
Smith, D.J.
(2009c). A demonstration of
philosopher-friendly reductionism in a computational model of cognition. Paper
presented 11th September 2009 to the 12th Annual Conference of the
Consciousness and Experiential Psychology Section of the British Psychological
Society, St. Anne's College, Oxford. [Play PowerPoint]
Smith, D.J. (2010a). The forensic ergonomics of
distraction errors: A computer simulation. Paper presented 14th April 2010 to
the Annual Conference of the Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors,
University of Keele. [Play PowerPoint]
Smith, D.J.
(2010b). The human operator revisited: Autonomous machines as equals (or not
quite) in the control room of the future. Paper presented 25th October 2010 to
the International Control Room Design Conference, Eurosites République, Paris.
[Play PowerPoint]
Smith, D.J.
(2010c). The human operator revisited: Autonomous machines as equals (or not
quite) in the control room of the future. In Wood, J. (Ed.), Conference
Proceedings, ICOCO 2010. Leicester: Institute of Ergonomics and Human
Factors.
Smith, D.J.
(2012a). The surprisingly difficult science of beautiful paintings. Paper
presented 26th July 2012 at the Wrexham Science Festival. [Play PowerPoint]
Smith, D.J.
(2012b). Embodied versus disembodied representation in an act of artificial
cognition. Guest Lecture
online - Shanghai Lectures 2012.
Smith, D.J. (1995b). Systems Engineering
for Healthcare Professionals. Cardiff: UWIC. [ISBN: 1900666022 - out of
print]
Smith, D.J. (1996b). Memory, Amnesia, and Modern
Cognitive Theory. Cardiff: UWIC. [ISBN: 1900666006]
Smith, D.J. (1996c). Brain and Communication.
Cardiff: UWIC. [ISBN: 1900666014]
Smith, D.J. (1997e). The IDMS Set Currency and
Biological Memory. Cardiff: UWIC. [ISBN: 1900666057] [Workbook to support poster presented 10th March 1997 at the
Interdisciplinary Workshop on Robotics, Biology, and Psychology, Department of
Artificial Intelligence, University of Edinburgh.]
Smith, D.J. (1997f). Chunking and Cognitive
Efficiency: Some Lessons from the History of Military Signalling. Cardiff:
UWIC. [ISBN: 1900666065] [Transcript of paper presented 27th March 1997 to the 11th Annual
Conference of the History and Philosophy of Psychology Section of the British
Psychological Society, York.]
Smith, D.J. (1997g). Human Information
Processing. Cardiff: UWIC. [ISBN: 1900666081]
Smith, D.J. (1997h). Neuroanatomy for Students of Communication.
Cardiff: UWIC. [ISBN: 190066609X - out of print]
Smith, D.J. and Stringer, C.B. (1997). Functional
Periodicity in Biological Information Processing Architectures. Cardiff:
UWIC. [ISBN: 1900666073]
Smith, D.J. (1998d). Applied Cognitive
Psychology. Cardiff: UWIC. [ISBN: 1900666103]
Smith D.J. (1999c). Freudian Structures in the
Computational Mind: Some Lessons from the Study of Ritual Sacrifice.
Cardiff: UWIC. [ISBN: 1900666111] [Transcript of paper presented 15th April 1999 to the 13th Annual
Conference of the History and Philosophy of Psychology Section of the British
Psychological Society, York.]