Computer programs that are used to explain different aspects of cognitive and behavioral development and processing (e.g., balance scale task). A computational model implements a theory of development and can be used to test this theory and to generate predictions that can be tested empirically. Undoubtedly, one of the founders of computational modelling was Alan Turing (1912-1951) and his eponymous machine. The Turing machine is an abstract or hypothetical automaton consisting of tape and a reading head, with tape moving back and forth under the head. In doing so, it marks and changes the symbols (e.g., 1 and 0) on the head one by one using the information it is supplied with. The activity of the machine is jointly determined by its current state and the symbol being read in the current frame. Turing launched his machine in 1937 before the invention of digital computers, yet stripped of its now arcane terminology it is in essence like a modern computer. Advances since Turing’s time have resulted in parallel computational models in which computers are linked together in tandem to process complex sets of data in which items of knowledge are represented by patterns of connections of different strengths between distributed locations within a neural network. The task then is one of ensuring parallel processing of collections of these activated connections to produce some desired outcome (e.g., resolution of the balance scale task).
See Activation, Analogical reasoning, Artificial intelligence, Auto-encoder networks, Backpropagation, Balance scale task, Category learning, Cognitive neuroscience, Cognitive science, Connectionism, Connectionist models, Constraint, Cybernetics, Motor noise, Neural net, Neuroconstructivist theories, On-line emergence, Psycholinguistics, Turing test