Computational Theory of Mind Meaning-making or

information processing?

Is Computational Theory of Mind just a fancier form of behaviorism?

Unit of analysis: What gets left out?

Distributed Cognition

Comparing the Two Theories

Original Goals A. To formally describe the meanings humans make of their

worlds & then hypothesize what meaning-making processes might be involved

B. To replace behaviorism, not simply reform it by adding a bit of mentalism

Five Key Features1. Posits a level of analysis wholly separate from the biological or

neurological

2. Faith that central to any understanding of the human mind is the computer

3. Deliberate decision to de-emphasize certain factors that may be important but complicate things (emotion, history/culture, role of context)

4. Faith in interdisciplinary studies (philosophy, psychology, artificial intelligence, linguistics, anthropology, neuroscience)

5. Claim that a key ingredient in contemporary cognitive psych. is the agenda of issues which have long exercised epistemologists in the Western philosophical tradition

Computational Theory of Mind

Original Goal A. To formally describe the meanings humans make of their worlds & then hypothesize what meaning-making processes might be involved

Key Feature 2. Faith that central to any understanding of the human mindis the computer

Meaning-Making or Computation of Information?

Mind-as-computer as the dominant metaphor Preoccupation with Models – Understanding of

human cognition reduced to the ability to simulate some cognitive process with a computer program

Yet…Information is indifferent to meaning(system processes the same regardless of whether the ‘information’ being computed is Shakespeare’s sonnets or numbers from a random table)

Emphasis shifted from construction of meaning to processing of information

Original Goal B. To replace behaviorism, not simply reform it by adding a bit of mentalism

Is Computational Theory of MindJust a Fancier Form of Behaviorism?

input & output replace stimuli & responses

Outcome information – gleaned from current situation through monitoring processes (e.g., metacognition) – replaces reinforcement

Mental states – such as believing, desiring, intending, grasping a meaning – are left out

Key Feature 3. Deliberate decision to de-emphasize certain factors that may be important but complicate things

Unit of Analysis: What Gets Left Out?

What Gets Left Out? Emotion Body Environment + Tools & Artifacts Social & Cultural Context

Are these aspects important? Emotion – Phineas Gage in 1848 (Damasio) Body – Embodiment Theory, Metaphors Environment + Tools & Artifacts – Affordances

& Constraints, Extended Cognition Social & Cultural Context – Vygotsky, symbols

are social

Distributed Cognition Cognition is (inter)action in the social & material

world.

Unit of analysis: Cognition not just in the head; rather, stretched over intact activity systems

Activity systems –  structures of interactions btwn individuals and their social & material contexts

Such activity systems include: Individual person Social relationships Physical and temporal contexts Symbolic & material resources Historical change

Within such systems, cognition is “a complex social phenomenon…distributed — stretched over, not divided among — mind, body, activity and culturally organized settings (which include other actors)” (Lave, 1988).

Example:Imagine a teacher creating a science activity

for a middle school classroom…

Assumptions of Computational Theory of Mind Cognition is bounded, dependent but autonomous system Hence, factoring assumption Dualist ontological tradition

Assumptions of Distributed Cognition Theory Basic organizing structure: “communities of practice” Meaning evolves through enculturation Meaning of x @ regular pattern of interaction w/x Identity: Changes in knowing = changes in being

• Non-Dualist Ontological Tradition• Learning = progress along trajectories of participation

& growth of identity