Human Learning

Because of the scale and complexity of the brain, it will be some years before the 1011 neurons in a typical human brain and the 1015 connections between them can be fully modeled in software. Not only is the brain very complex, it is fast we can recognize the face of a friend within a few hundred milliseconds by comparing it against the many thousands of faces that we have seen in the past. It is evident, therefore, that spreading a demanding computational task across large numbers of simple units can be very efficient. 

The complex pattern of interneuron connections within the brain. 

Using Artificial Intelligence in Chemistry and Biology A Practical Guide 

A novice user s view of the operation of an artificial neural network. 

Any software model of the brain that we could create using a current PC could emulate only an infinitesimal amount of it, so it might seem that our expectations of what an ANN could accomplish should be set at a thoroughly modest level. Happily, the reality is different. Though computer-based neural networks are minute compared with the brain, they can still outperform the brain in solving many types of problems. 

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Only natural dyes were known until the nineteenth century. By trial and error and probably also by chance, humans learned to extract and use a large variety of dyes of vegetable and animal origin. Dyes were extracted from the roots, trunk bark, and branches of trees, the stems, leaves, flowers, and fruits of plants, the bodies of insects and mollusks, and the eggs of insects. All the dyes obtained from natural sources are rather impure, and hence the accurate reproducibility of colors was almost impossible during antiquity. Still, many of the dyes and dyeing techniques used in antiquity were highly developed and remained in use until the discovery of the synthetic dyes in the middle of the nineteenth century (Colombo 1995 Robinson 1969). 

The primary aim of behavior modification is to help patients choose lifestyles conducive to safe and sustained weight loss. Behavioral therapy is based on principles of human learning, which use stimulus control and reinforcement to substitute desirable for learned, undesirable behavior. 

It was not until about 4000 bce that humans learned how to obtain these base metals from ores by using heat. Both the refining of and the uses for silver as jewelry are described in ancient Egyptian writings as well as the Old Testament of the Bible. During these ancient times, silver was more valuable than gold primarily because it was more difficult to find in its natural state as well as to extract from its ores. 

The evolution of the current interglacial period is different from its predecessors in that it was during this time that humans evolved. They learned to use tools, manage fire, hunt, gather, and assert some control over their immediate environment. Through this evolution, they started to move carbon in different ways as well. When humans learned to burn and manage fire, they started to add carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. 

Solnick, J., Kannenberg, C., Eckerman, D., and Waller, M. (1980) An experimental analysis of impulsivity and impulse control in humans , Learning and Motivation 11,61-77. 

Higgins, S.T. et al., Effects of intranasal cocaine on human learning, performance and physiology, Psychopharmacology, 102, 451, 1990. 

In some ways, then, the evolution of materials over the millennia is one of the clearest mirrors of the evolution of human society itself. Since the day when the first human learned how to chip a rock to produce a useful tool, people have continuously learned more about the materials that nature has given, the ways in which those materials can be manipulated and used, and the ways people can go one step more in producing new and better materials. 

Leopold and Ardrey (1972) have reported that humans have not been plant feeders nearly as long as the other animals, perhaps because they learned early in their evolution that many plants were poisonous. According to these authors, humans learned to detoxify plant toxins by cooking them only about 40,000 years ago. If so, humans have been carnivores throughout most of their evolution and have had less opportunity to evolve biochemical defenses against the plant toxins. This may explain why humans have lower detoxification capacity compared to other mammals (see Figure 9.1). 

Silver also occurs as a free metal, but much less often than gold or copper. At some point, humans learned to extract silver from its ores. But that discovery must have occurred very early on in human history. Archaeologists (scientists who study ancient civilizations) have found silver objects dating to about 3400 bce in Egypt. Drawings on some of the oldest pyramids show men working with metal, probably extracting silver from its ores. 

Complete Dictionary of Arts and Sciences In which the Whole Circle of Human Learning is Explained, 3 vols (London, 1764-66), s.v. 

Kieras, D. E. (1991). Human learning of schemas from explanations in practical electronics (Tech. Rep. No. 34 TR-91/ONR34). Ann Arbor Technical Information Design 8c Analysis Laboratory, University of Michigan. 

Postman, L. (1964). Short-term memory and incidental learning. In A. W. Melton (Ed.), Categories of human learning (pp. 146-194). New York Academic Press. 

Santa, J. L. (1977). Spatial transformations of words and pictures. Journal of Experimental Psychology Human Learning and Memory, 3, 418-427. 

By experience, humans learned that certain natural materials helped cure specific illnesses. Minerals as well as dried animal and plant matter were ground to powder and formulated to yield medicines. Since powders cannot be easily consumed orally, natural binders, such as honey which, incidentally, also masked the unpleasant taste of... 

Between 4000 and 3000 BC the Bronze Age began humans learned to extract copper and tin from ores by heat and produced the alloy bronze. Accordingly, mining activities increased and wastes were still simply discarded into heaps. Somewhat before 1000 BC, the Iron Age started in western Asia and Egypt as man learned to smelt... 

By experience, humans learned that certain natural materials helped cure specific illnesses. Minerals as well as dried animal and plant matter were ground to powder and formulated to yield medidnes. Since powders carmot be easily consumed orally, natural binders, such as honey which, inddentally, also masked the unpleasant taste of some of the medicinal components, were mixed with the powder and the resulting plastic mass was rolled by hand into little balls (pills). The sticky binder(s) caused pills to adhere to each other therefore, it was soon found that coating the pills by rolling them in flour or pollen solved this problem. 

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