Adaptive Resonance Theory

Abstract

data mining, this article shows how models based on adaptive resonance theory (ART) may provide entirely new questions and practical solutions for technological applications. ART models carry out hypothesis testing, search, and incremental fast or slow, self-stabilizing learning, recognition, and prediction in response to large nonstationary databases (big data). Three computational examples, each based on the distributed ART neural network, frame questions and illustrate how a learning system (each with no free parameters) may enhance the analysis of large-scale data. Performance of each task is simulated on a common mapping platform, a remote sensing dataset called the Boston Testbed, available online along with open-source system code. Key design elements of ART models and links to software for each system are included. The article further points to future applications for integrative ART-based systems that have already been computationally specified and simulated. New application directions include autonomous robotics, general-purpose machine vision, audition, speech recognition, language acquisition, eye movement control, visual search, figure-ground separation, invariant object recognition, social cognition, object and spatial attention, scene understanding, space- time integration, episodic memory, navigation, object tracking, system-level analysis of mental disorders, and machine consciousness.