Computer simulation of thought processes

This chapter shows that defining the terminology of the information-processing approach. It reviews some of the major developments in the field of computer simulation of thought processes. The chapter considers the relationship between the language of this approach and the language of personal activity. The development of the analogy between computer programmes and human thought has aroused a great deal of controversy. The cybernetic hypothesis states that the fundamental structure of the nervous system is the feedback loop. The symbols processed by a digital computer are discrete, all-or-none signals, whereas an analogue computer represents the values of variables by physical quantities that vary continuously. The digital computer has proved more flexible and hence more popular. It consists essentially of a memory, an interpreter or control unit, which is the device for following the programme of instructions fed into the computer, and input and output units, which allow communication between the computer and its environment.