Rethinking Cognitive Computation: Turing and the Science of the Mind

ISBN-13: 9781403911612 / Angielski / Twarda / 2005 / 288 str.

Andrew Wells

Opis

This book provides a detailed understanding of the computational foundations of cognitive science. The author makes a critical evaluation of the symbol processing and connectionist approaches which constitute the current mainstream; and offers a new computational framework for cognitive science.

Spis treści

Introduction.- Making the Modern Mind.- Functional States and Mini-minds.- Exploring Sets of Mini-minds.- Environments and Actions.- Turing's Analysis of Computation.- Turing's Example Machines.- Turing's Functional Notation.- Standard Descriptions and Description Numbers.- Basic Components of the Universal Machine.- Simulation.- The Universal Machine in Detail.- Turing's Unsolvability Proofs.- Von Neumann Computer Architecture.- Virtual Architecture.- The Commitments of the Computational Theory of Mind.- Evaluating the Computational Theory of Mind.- Connectionism.- Ecological Functionalism: Computation.- Ecological Functionalism: Psychology.- References.

O autorze

ANDREW WELLS is Lecturer in Psychology at the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK. He has qualifications in philosophy, psychology and computer science and has published papers on a range of psychological topics.

Blurb

Rethinking Cognitive Computation explores the hypothesis that the mind is a computer. The exploration is based on the pioneering work of Alan Turing and presents the first detailed exposition of his theory of computation intended specifically for psychologists. Turing's bold and beautiful theory provides an ideal perspective from which to evaluate current computational thinking about the mind. The book examines the strengths and weaknesses of symbol systems and connectionist theorising and proposes a new approach called ecological functionalism. Ecological functionalism is based on Turing's fundamental insights and extends them by drawing on contemporary theories of concurrent and distributed computation to cover a wide range of psychological domains. Ecological functionalism provides the basis for a powerful, unified theory of great scope which includes social as well as individual processes. The book is intended for teaching but will also be of interest to researchers in cognitive science, psychology and philosophy of mind.

Andrew Wells is a lecturer in psychology at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He has qualifications in philosophy, psychology and computer science and has published papers on a range of psychological topics.