Commercial Research and Educational Use including without Limitation Use in Instruction at Your Institution, Sending It to Specific Colleagues Who You Know, and Providing a Copy to Your Institution's Administrator. All Other Uses, Reproduction and Distribution, including without Limitation Commercia

Glossary Connectionism – Connectionism is a framework in cognitive science, according to which all of the processes achieved by the mind can be modeled by parallel and distributed processing among simple operational units. It is mostly based on the development of artificial neural networks, and it has been traditionally opposed to the position that mental processes are based on symbolic computations. Functionalism – Functionalism is a doctrine in cognitive science, according to which a mental state is defined by its functional role, rather than by its intrinsic structure and its implementation. In other words, a functional model of the mind (or of an operation that is achieved by the mind) involves mental states that are causally related to sensory inputs and other mental states, and behavior. Homunculus – Literally, 'little man,' in Latin, that is in the context of cognitive theories of consciousness, a conscious observer, which is at the top of the cognitive system. A Homunculus is a hypothetical construct that operates (i.e., with no further explanation) the very operation that is supposed to be explained. Thus, a theory that relies on a homunculus at some point is incomplete in the same extend.