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.
Author(s): Andrew Wells
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2005
Language: English
Pages: 288
Dedication
Epigraph
Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
Acknowledgement
Preface
1. Introduction
2. Making the Modern Mind
3. Functional States and Mini-minds
4. Exploring Sets of Mini-minds
5. Environments and Actions
6. Turing’s Analysis of Computation
7. Turing’s Example Machines
8. Turing’s Functional Notation
9. Standard Descriptions and Description Numbers
10. Basic Components of the Universal Machine
11. Simulation
12. The Universal Machine in Detail
13. Turing’s Unsolvability Proofs
14. Von Neumann Computer Architecture
15. Virtual Architecture
16. The Commitments of the Computational Theory of Mind
17. Evaluating the Computational Theory of Mind
18. Connectionism
19. Ecological Functionalism: Computation
20. Ecological Functionalism: Psychology
References
Index
