Gerard J. O'Brien (1998) The Role of Implementation in Connectionist Explanation . Psycoloquy: 9(06) Connectionist Explanation (3)
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Psycoloquy 9(06): The Role of Implementation in Connectionist Explanation

THE ROLE OF IMPLEMENTATION IN CONNECTIONIST EXPLANATION
Commentary on Green on Connectionist-Explanation

Gerard J. O'Brien
Department of Philosophy
University of Adelaide
South Australia 5005
Australia
http://chomsky.arts.adelaide.edu.au/Philosophy/gobrien/gobrien.htm

gobrien@arts.adelaide.edu.au

Abstract

Green is right to question the explanatory role of connectionist models in cognitive science. What is more, he is generally right in his judgement that the only way of interpreting connectionist models as theories of cognitive phenomena is by construing them as "literal models of brain activity" (1998, para. 20). This is because connectionist explanations of cognitive phenomena are more dependent on details of implementation than their conventional ("classical") counterparts.

Keywords

classicism, cognition, connectionism, explanation, implementation, methodology, theory.

References