Jonathan Grainger (1998) Localist Connectionism Fits the Bill . Psycoloquy: 9(10) Connectionist Explanation (7)
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Psycoloquy 9(10): Localist Connectionism Fits the Bill

LOCALIST CONNECTIONISM FITS THE BILL
Commentary on Green on Connectionist-Explanation

Jonathan Grainger
Centre de Recherche en Psychologie Cognitive, CNRS
Universite de Provence
Aix-en-Provence
France

Arthur M. Jacobs
Dept. of Psychology
Philips University of Marburg,
Marbug, Germany

grainger@newsup.univ-mrs.fr jacobsa@mailer.uni-marburg.de

Abstract

Green (1998) restates a now standard critique of connectionist models: they have poor explanatory value as a result of their opaque functioning. However, this problem only arises in connectionist models that use distributed hidden unit representations, and is NOT a feature of localist connectionism. Indeed, Green's critique reads as an appeal for the development of localist connectionist models as an excellent starting point for building a unified theory of human cognition.

Keywords

artificial intelligence, cognition, computer modelling, connectionism, epistemology, explanation, methodology, neural nets, philosophy of science, theory.

References