In this book, Chris Eliasmith presents a new
approach to understanding the neural implementation of
cognition in a way that is centrally driven by
biological considerations. He calls the general
architecture that results from the application of this
approach the Semantic Pointer Architecture (SPA), based
on the Semantic Pointer Hypothesis. According to this
hypothesis, higher-level cognitive functions in
biological systems are made possible by semantic
pointers. These pointers are neural representations that
carry partial semantic content and can be built up into
the complex representational structures necessary to
support cognition. The SPA architecture demonstrates how
neural systems generate, compose, and control the flow
of semantics pointers. Eliasmith describes in detail the
theory and empirical evidence supporting the SPA, and
presents several examples of its application to
cognitive modeling, covering the generation of semantic
pointers from visual data, the application of semantic
pointers for motor control, and most important, the use
of semantic pointers for representation of language-like
structures, cognitive control, syntactic generalization,
learning of new cognitive strategies, and language-based
reasoning. He agues that the SPA provides an alternative
to the dominant paradigms in cognitive science,
including symbolicism, connectionism, and
dynamicism.
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