Brandon Herndon, Wes Wynmor, and Tyler Tuminski

 Connectionism is a theory that seeks to explain the human thought process.  It states that the mind is a system of “neural nets” composed of unsophisticated units that play simple roles in how information is gathered and processed.

 Input units – Units responsible for gathering sensory information.  Hidden units – Units that process sensory information sent from input units.  Output Units – Units that act on the conclusions drawn from processed information.

 Classical cognitive theory states that the mind functions by decoding symbols based upon “strings” of pre-decoded symbols.  Connectionists propose that the mind functions as connections are drawn between trillions of simple units.

 The term “artificial intelligence” refers to a field of computer science that seeks to create computers capable of independent thought.

 The “brains” of “intelligent” computers function based on connectionist systems.  Watson, the IBM super-computer that beat two of Jeopardy’s finest, has a brain that operates based on a system of algorithm-based connections and analysis.

 When one has a conversation numerous connectionist principles are in place.  When one communicates his or her brain subconsciously considers millions of combinations of words, inflections, and expressions.

 "Connectionism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Web. 07 Apr