LINGUIST List 12.2546

Fri Oct 12 2001

Books: Connectionism/Cognitive Science

Editor for this issue: Richard John Harvey <richardlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Jud Wolfskill, Connectionism/Cognitive Science: Marcus

For more information please visit http://mitpress.mit.edu/0262133792


The Algebraic Mind
Integrating Connectionism and Cognitive Science
Gary F. Marcus

In The Algebraic Mind, Gary F. Marcus integrates two competing
theories about how the mind works, one which says that the mind is a
computer-like manipulator of symbols, and another which says that the
mind is a large network of neurons working together in
parallel. Refuting the conventional wisdom that says that if the mind
is a large neural network it cannot simultaneously be a manipulator of
symbols, Marcus shows how neural systems could be organized so as to
manipulate symbols, why such systems explain language and cognition
better than systems that eschew symbols, how such system could evolve,
and how they might unfold developmentally within the womb. The
Algebraic Mind revamps our understanding of models in cognitive
neuroscience and helps to set a new agenda for the field.

Gary F. Marcus is Associate Professor of Psychology at New York University.

6 x 9, 225 pp., 48 illus., cloth ISBN 0-262-13379-2

Learning, Development, and Conceptual Change series
A Bradford Book


Jud Wolfskill
Associate Publicist
MIT Press
5 Cambridge Center, 4th Floor
Cambridge, MA 02142
617.253.2079
617.253.1709 fax
wolfskilmit.edu