Jeffrey Elman

Jeffrey L. Elman is Distinguished Professor of Cognitive Science at the University of California, San Diego. He is a well-known psycholinguist and pioneer in the field of neural networks.

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Biography

With Jay McClelland, he developed the TRACE model of speech perception in the mid-80s. TRACE remains a highly influential model that has stimulated a large body of empirical research.

In 1990, he introduced the Simple Recurrent neural network (aka 'Elman network'), which is a widely-used recurrent neural network that is capable of processing sequentially ordered stimuli.[1] Elman nets are used in a number of fields, including cognitive science, psychology, economics and physics, among many others.

In 1996, he co-authored (with Annette Karmiloff-Smith, Elizabeth Bates, Mark H. Johnson, Domenico Parisi, and Kim Plunkett), the book Rethinking Innateness,[2] which argues against a strong nativist (innate) view on development.

Elman is an Inaugural Fellow of the Cognitive Science Society, and also was its President, from 1999-2000. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from the New Bulgarian University, and is the 2007 recipient of the David E. Rumelhart Prize for Theoretical Contributions to Cognitive Science. He is founding Co-Director of the Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind at UC San Diego, Dean of Social Sciences, and holds the Chancellor's Associates Endowed Chair.

The Committee on Academic Freedom of the UC San Diego Academic Senate investigated a 2009 letter sent by Elman to a professor in the Sociology Department regarding an academic dispute with a colleague. In it Elman ordered him not to publish criticism of his colleague, saying it "may damage the reputation of a colleague" and result in "written censure, reduction in salary, demotion, suspension, or dismissal."[3] In May 25, 2011, after hearing a report from the committee, the Senate The University of California San Diego faculty assembly "expressed 'grave concern' about what it deems a violation of academic freedom and called on the administration to acknowledge and correct the situation".[4][5]

See also

References

  1. ^ Jeffrey L. Elman. Finding structure in time. Cognitive Science Volume 14, Issue 2, Pages 179-211, 1990
  2. ^ Elman et al., Jeffrey (1996). Rethinking Innateness: A Connectionist Perspective on Development. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. ISBN 026255030X. 
  3. ^ Inside Higher Education (2011). http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/05/26/are_administrators_trying_to_involve_themselves_in_faculty_disputes] Retrieved on 2011-7-3.
  4. ^ San Diego Union Tribune (2011). [1] Retrieved on 2011-7-3.
  5. ^ Inside Higher Education (2011). http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/05/26/are_administrators_trying_to_involve_themselves_in_faculty_disputes] Retrieved on 2011-7-3.

External links