Connectionism and the Mind

Preface.
1. Networks versus Symbol Systems: Two Approaches to Modeling Cognition: .

A Revolution in the Making?.

Forerunners of Connectionism: Pandemonium and Perceptrons.

The Allure of Symbol Manipulation.

The Disappearance and Re-emergence of Network Models.

New Alliances and Unfinished Business.

Notes.

Sources and Suggested Readings.

2. Connectionist Architectures: .

The Flavor of Connectionist Processing: A Simulation of Memory Retrieval.

The Design Features of a Connectionist Architecture.

The Allure of the Connectionist Approach.

Challenges Facing Connectionist Networks.

Summary.

Notes.

Sources and Suggested Readings.

3. Learning: .

Traditional and Contemporary Approaches to Learning.

Connectionist Models of Learning.

Some Issues Regarding Learning.

Notes.

Sources and Suggested Readings.

4. Pattern Recognition and Cognition: .

Networks as Pattern Recognition Devices.

Extending Pattern Recognition to Higher Cognition.

Logical Inference as Pattern Recognition.

Beyond Pattern Recognition.

Notes.

Sources and Suggested Readings.

5. Are Rules Required to Process Representations?: .

Is Language Use Governed by Rules?.

Rumelhart and McClelland s Model of Past-Tense Acquisition.

Pinker and Prince s Arguments for Rules.

Accounting for the U-Shaped Learning Function.

Conclusion.

Notes.

Sources and Suggested Readings.

6. Are Syntactically Structured Representations Needed?: .

Fodor and Pylyshyn s Critique: The Need for Symbolic Representations with Constituent Structure.

First Connectionist Response: Explicitly Implementing Rules and Representations.

Second Connectionist Response: Implementing Functionally Compositional Representations.

Third Connectionist Response: Employing Procedural Knowledge with External Symbols.

Using External Symbols to Provide Exact Symbol Processing.

Clarifying the Standard: Systematicity and Degree of

William Bechtel is Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, San Diego and Editor of the journal Philosophical Psychology. His publications include Philosophy of Mind (1988), Philosophy of Science (1988), and Discovering Complexity (1993, with Robert Richardson), A Companion to Cognitive Science (with George Graham, Blackwell 1999), Philosophy and the Neurosciences (with Pete Mandik, Jennefer Mundale and Robert S. Stufflebeam, Blackwell 2001).

Adele Abrahamsen is Associate Professor of Psychology and Undergraduate Director of the Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology and Linguistics Programs at Washington University in St. Louis. She is the author of Child Language (1977).

"Much more than just an update, this is a thorough and exciting re-build of the classic text. Excellent new treatments of modularity, dynamics, artificial life, and cognitive neuroscience locate connectionism at the very heart of contemporary debates. A superb combination of detail, clarity, scope, and enthusiasm." Andy Clark, University of Sussex "Connectionism and the Mind is an extraordinarily comprehensive and thoughtful review of connectionism, with particular emphasis on recent developments. This new edition will be a valuable primer to those new to the field. But there is more: Bechtel and Abrahamsen's trenchant and even-handed analysis of the conceptual issues that are addressed by connectionist models constitute an important original theoretical contribution to cognitive science." Jeff Elman, University of California at San Diego

"Much more than just an update, this is a thorough and exciting re-build of the classic text. Excellent new treatments of modularity, dynamics, artificial life, and cognitive neuroscience locate connectionism at the very heart of contemporary debates. A superb combination of detail, clarity, scope, and enthusiasm." Andy Clark , University of Sussex

" Connectionism and the Mind is an extraordinarily comprehensive and thoughtful review of connectionism, with particular emphasis on recent developments. This new edition will be a valuable primer to those new to the field. But there is more: Bechtel and Abrahamsen s trenchant and even-handed analysis of the conceptual issues that are addressed by connectionist models constitute an important original theoretical contribution to cognitive science." Jeff Elman , University of California at San Diego