Behavioral and Brain Sciences

Table of Contents - 2008 - Volume 31, Issue 06  

Open Peer Commentary

Concepts, correlations, and some challenges for connectionist cognition

Gary F. Marcusa1 and Frank C. Keila2

a1 Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY 10012; gary.marcus@nyu.edu http://www.psych.nyu.edu/gary/

a2 Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06510. frank.keil@yale.edu http://www.yale.edu/psychology/FacInfo/Keil.html

Abstract

Rogers & McClelland's (R&M's) précis represents an important effort to address key issues in concepts and categorization, but few of the simulations deliver what is promised. We argue that the models are seriously underconstrained, importantly incomplete, and psychologically implausible; more broadly, R&M dwell too heavily on the apparent successes without comparable concern for limitations already noted in the literature.

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