ABSTRACT
Bereitets presentation of connectionism is put forward as an explanation of how computational tasks are performed by the brain in ways that are consistent with the alternative views of cognition as situated or embodied, as opposed to the more classical rule-based approaches. One perennial problem for theories of cognition has been how to account for the nature of representation. Clancey and Roschelle addressed this problem in a way that is extremely relevant to an appreciation of cognition as a situated social process, arguing that “cognitive science research has distorted the nature of representations, and hence at its heart distorted the nature of cognition”. Recognition that the most diverse elements can operate within a triadic sign also has implications for the kind of interdisciplinary work needed to account for cognition and other semiosic processes. The anthropologist Lévi-Strauss provided the most influential example of how Saussure’s structuralist approach could be generalized for diverse uses in the humanities and social sciences.
