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Connectionist Networks

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Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences
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Synonyms

Artificial neural networks; Parallel distributed processing (PDP) models

Definition

“Connectionism” is the name for the computer modeling approach to information processing based on how networks of interconnected neurons in the brain process information. “Connectionist networks” (or artificial neural networks) are computer models based on the nonsymbolic, parallel, distributed type of computation that occurs in neural networks.

Introduction

Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary study of intelligent systems and the processing that produces behavior. Since intelligent systems include every sort of mental, sensory, linguistic, or purposeful behavior that arises from information processing, cognitive scientists study all manner of natural and artificial “things” capable of knowledge, thought, language, perception, etc. One of the main methods in cognitive science is computer modeling. Whether as a means of understanding and explaining how human or other “natural” minds work,...

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References

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Correspondence to Robert Stufflebeam .

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Stufflebeam, R. (2020). Connectionist Networks. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24612-3_972

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