Scientific Models, Connectionist Networks, and Cognitive Science

Bibliographic Data

ID20401121
AuthorsChristopher D Green (0000-0002-6027-6709, York University, corresponding author)
Year2001
Volume11
Issue1
Pages97-117
Publication date2001-02-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueTheory & Psychology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0959-3543 • E-ISSN: 1461-7447
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0959354301111008
OpenAlexW2084095376
LanguageEN
References cited21

The employment of a particular class of computer programs known as `connectionist networks' to model mental processes is a wide-spread approach to research in cognitive science these days. Little has been written, however, on the precise connection that is thought to hold between such programs and actual in vivo cognitive processes such that the former can be said to `model' the latter in a scientific sense. What is more, this relation can be shown to be problematic. In this paper I give a brief overview of the use of connectionist models in cognitive science, and then explore some of the statements connectionists have made about the nature of the `modeling relation' thought to hold between them and cognitive processes. Finally, I show that these accounts are inadequate and that more work is necessary if connectionist networks are to be seriously regarded as scientific models of cognitive processes

Artificial neural network · Cognition · Cognitive model · Cognitive science · Connectionism · Epistemology · Scientific modelling · Cognitive Science and Mapping · Computer Science · Embodied and Extended Cognition · Neuroscience · Philosophy and History of Science · Psychology · Artificial Intelligence

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