Modelling Biological Systems with Competitive Coherence

Figure 2

Overview of essential modules. A single cycle of the COMPUTE routine results in the addresses of a subset of the elements being loaded into a line of the Activity Register; this corresponds to activating these elements. Certain elements are inputs and others are outputs. The INPUT routine creates an input by loading the address of an input element into the Activity Register. The learning part of the program, Coco, eventually responds to an input by loading the address of an output element into the Activity Register; this corresponds to an output. The actual loading of addresses results from a competition between Now and Next links; the scores obtained from counting these links may be modified by an EMERGENCE routine. The DOWNTIME and REVERSE DOWNTIME routines may make certain elements ineligible for loading, depending on the history of these elements. Outputs are detected, evaluated, and rewarded or punished by REWARD/PUNISH routines. Each time a line of the Activity Register has been filled, the results are displayed.