Connectionism and Psychology : A Psychological Perspective on New Connectionist Research

This is an introductory text on connectionism, which is fundamentally concerned with methods for construing mental processes, and which challenges the traditional information-processing approach. Examples of connectionist models of learning, vision and language are described in detail, and the basic predicates like exclusive-OR are examined. In addition, the limitations of perceptions are explained and properties of multi-layer networks are described with the help of examples of psychological processes. A psychological perspective of the history of connectionism is provided and the book ends with a general critique of the approach.