Connectionism: Theory and Practice / Edition 1

by Steven Davis

Overview

Over the last decade, an emerging form of computational modeling has steadily gained the respect of many researchers as a radically new and promising approach to cognitive science. Known by a number of names, including "connectionism," "neural networks," and "parallel distributed processing" (PDP), this method of computation attempts to model the neural proocesses that are assumed to underlie cognitive functions in human beings. Unlike the digital computation methods used by Al researchers, connectionist models claim to approximate the kind of spontaneous, creative, and somewhat unpredictable behavior of human agents. However, over the last few years, a heated controversy has arisen over the extent to which connectionist models are able to provide successful explanations for higher cognitive processes. A central theme of this book is the adequacy of recent attempts to implement higher cognitive processes in connectionist networks. Cognitive scientists, cognitive psychologists, linguists, philosophers, computer scientists, and others exploring this fascinating science will find this book essential reading.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195076653
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	08/20/1992
Series:	|c NDCS |t New Directions in Cognitive Science , #3
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.26(w) x 9.36(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Simon Fraser University

Table of Contents

1. Using Coherence Assumptions to Discover the Underlying Causes of the Sensory Input, G.E. Hinton and S. BeckerComment, Michael I. Jordan and Robert A. Jacobs2. A Deeper Unity: Some Feyerabendian Themes in Neurocomputational Form, Paul M. ChurchlandComment, Charles Travis3. Towards a Microstructural Account of Human Reasoning, David E. Rumelhart4. Connectionism without Tears, Mark S. SeidenbergComment: Michael E.J. Masson5. Grammatical Structure and Distributed Representations, Jeffrey L. Elman6. Structured Representations in Connectionist Systems, Terence Horgan and John Tienson7. Local Modelling in Phonology, John Goldsmith8. Connectionism and the Philosophy of Mental Representation, William Ramsey9. Connectionism and the Computational Neurobiology of Curve Detection, Steven W. Zucker, Allan Dobbins, and Lee Iverson10. PDP Learnability and Innate Knowledge of Language, David Kirsch