Neurocognitive Mechanisms: Explaining Biological Cognition PDF

Neurocognitive Mechanisms: Explaining Biological Cognition PDF free download – While in graduate school at the University of Pittsburgh, during the late 1990s and early 2000s, I embarked on a research program: first, figure out what physical computation is by drawing from computer science and computer engineering; then, apply that understanding to the brain and answer the foundational questions about cognition. For good measure, I included a careful study of the origin of computational theories of cognition. That was way too much for a dissertation. My dissertation included some historical research and an account of physical computation (Piccinini 2003a). I left the foundational questions for future work. My early mechanistic account of physical computation was, roughly, that physical computation is the manipulation of digits by a functional mechanism in accordance with a rule (Piccinini 2007a). I thought this account would allow me to refute the Computational Theory of Cognition (CTC) once and for all. I wrote a paper attempting that. My argument was that computation is digital; neural activity is not digital; therefore, neural activity is not computational. But I never published that paper because I eventually realized I was missing something.