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.