Explaining Systematicity: A Reply to Kenneth Aizawa

Author: Hadley R.F.¹

Source: Minds and Machines, Volume 7, Number 4, November 1997 , pp. 571-579(9)

Publisher: Springer

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Abstract:

In his discussion of results which I (with Michael Hayward) recently reported in this journal, Kenneth Aizawa takes issue with two of our conclusions, which are: (a) that our connectionist model provides a basis for explaining systematicity “within the realm of sentence comprehension, and subject to a limited range of syntax”; (b) that the model does not employ structure-sensitive processing, and that this is clearly true in the early stages of the network's training. Ultimately, Aizawa rejects both (a) and (b) for reasons which I think are ill-founded. In what follows, I offer a defense of our position. In particular, I argue (1) that Aizawa adopts a standard of explanation that many accepted scientific explanations could not meet, and (2) that Aizawa misconstrues the relevant meaning of `structure-sensitive process'.

Keywords: systematicity; connectionism; cognitive architecture; explanation; structure-sensitivity

Language: English

Document Type: Regular paper

Affiliations: 1: School of Computing Science and Cognitive Science Program, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., V5A 1S6, Canada.

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