Connectionism in Context

Connectionism in Context aims to broaden and extend the

debate concerning the significance of connectionist models.

The volume collects together a variety of perspectives by

experimental and developmental psychologists, philosophers

and active AI researchers. These contributions relate con-

nectionist ideas to historical psychlogical debates, e.g.,

over behaviourism and associationism, to develop-

mental and philosophical issues. The result is a volume

which addresses both familiar, but central, topics such as

the relation between connectionism and classical AI, and

less familiar, but highly challenging topics, such as

connectionism,associationism and behaviourism, the dis-

tinction between perception and cognition, the role of en-

vironmental structure, and the potential value ofconnec-

tionism as a means of "symbol grounding". The nine essays

have been written with an interdisciplinary audience in mind

and avoid both technical jargon and heavy mathematics.