How do connectionist networks compute?

Cognitive Processing 7 (1):30-41 (2006)
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Abstract

Although connectionism is advocated by its proponents as an alternative to the classical computational theory of mind, doubts persist about its _computational_ credentials. Our aim is to dispel these doubts by explaining how connectionist networks compute. We first develop a generic account of computation—no easy task, because computation, like almost every other foundational concept in cognitive science, has resisted canonical definition. We opt for a characterisation that does justice to the explanatory role of computation in cognitive science. Next we examine what might be regarded as the “conventional” account of connectionist computation. We show why this account is inadequate and hence fosters the suspicion that connectionist networks aren’t genuinely computational. Lastly, we turn to the principal task of the paper: the development of a more robust portrait of connectionist computation. The basis of this portrait is an explanation of the representational capacities of connection weights, supported by an analysis of the weight configurations of a series of simulated neural networks

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Author Profiles

Gerard O'Brien
University of Adelaide
Jonathan Opie
University of Adelaide

Citations of this work

The language of thought hypothesis.Murat Aydede - 2010 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Structural Representations and the Brain.Oron Shagrir - 2012 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 63 (3):519-545.
Distributed traces and the causal theory of constructive memory.John Sutton & Gerard O'Brien - 2023 - In Current Controversies in the Philosophy of Memory. Routledge. pp. 82-104. Translated by Andre Sant' Anna, Christopher McCarroll & Kourken Michaelian.

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