Robert M. French (1998) Function, Sufficiently Constrained, Implies Form
. Psycoloquy: 9(21) Connectionist Explanation (18)
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Psycoloquy 9(21): Function, Sufficiently Constrained, Implies Form
FUNCTION, SUFFICIENTLY CONSTRAINED, IMPLIES FORM
Commentary on Green on Connectionist-Explanation
Robert M. French
Psychology Department (B33)
University of Liege,
4000 Liege, Belgium
http://www.fapse.ulg.ac.be/Lab/Trav/rfrench.html
Axel Cleeremans
Seminaire de Recherche en Sciences Cognitives
Universite Libre de Bruxelles
1050 Brussels, Belgium
rfrench@ulg.ac.be
axcleer@ulb.ac.be
Abstract
Green's (1998) target article is an attack on most
current connectionist models of cognition. Our commentary will
suggest that there is an essential component missing in his
discussion of modeling, namely, the idea that the appropriate
level of the model needs to be specified. We will further suggest
that the precise form (size, topology, learning rules, etc.) of
connectionist networks will fall out as ever more detailed
constraints are placed on their function.
Keywords
artificial intelligence, cognition, computer modelling,
connectionism, epistemology, explanation, methodology, neural nets,
philosophy of science, theory.
References
- Cleeremans, A. & French, R. (1996). From Chicken Squawking to Cognition: Levels of description and the Computational Approach in Psychology. Psychologica Belgica 36(1-2), 5-29.
- Content, A. & U.H. Frauenfelder (1996). On the need for computer modeling: The case of language processing. Psychologica Belgica 36(1-2), 113-144.
- French, R. (1995). The Subtlety of Sameness: A theory and computer model of analogy-making. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
- French, R. (1990). Subcognition and the Limits of the Turing Test. Mind, 99(393), 53-65.
- Green, C.D. (1998) Are Connectionist Models Theories of Cognition? PSYCOLOQUY 9 (4) ftp://ftp.princeton.edu/pub/harnad/Psycoloquy/1998.volume.9/ psyc.98.9.04.connectionist-explanation.1.green
- Rosenberg, C. (1987). Revealing the Structure of NETtalk's internal representations. Proc. of 9th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society: 537-554
- Shepard, G. (1988) Neurobiology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Towell, G. & Shavlik, J. (1993). The extraction of refined rules from knowledge-based neural networks. Machine Learning, 13:1, 71-101.