A Connectionist Perspective on Knowledge and Development (1995)
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BibTeX
@MISC{McClelland95aconnectionist,
author = {J L McClelland},
title = {A Connectionist Perspective on Knowledge and Development},
year = {1995}
}
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Abstract
Questions about how our knowledge changes in respOnse to experience lie at the heart of efforts to understand cognitive development, In this chapter, I approach these questions from a connectio.ust perspective, I contrast a connectionist approach to these questions with traditional symbolic or propositional approaches, I suggest that thinking a~ut the development of knowledge has been heavily influenced by the assumption that knowledge is symbolic, and I argue that a connectionist approach leads to new conceptualizations of the processes through which developing children come to know lIlore and more about the world" These issues are explored by considering a connectionist simulation " model that is',appliedto tbebalance scale task studiecJ by Siegler and otbers, The graded ' nature or the representationS used by, tbelllodel. allows it. to account for several aspects of the empirical data, including the Torque Difference Effect (Ferretti & Butterfield,. 1986), The incremental nature of connectionist learning-the fact that current learning builds ' on what. has already been learned-allows the model to account for stagelike developmental progressions and for differences readiness to, learn from particular experiences at different points in development, The chapter also shows bow the connectionist framework allows one to capture effects of ' cue,complexity as weD as. cue familiarity on the course of development, The discussion considers tIJe essential features of the connectionist account of performance and development in the balance scale task, and considers open questions, such as the nature of the initial constraints necessary to lead to successful development, and the relation-
