preview

The Theory Of Symbolic Systems Essay

Better Essays

When we try to imagine the mechanics of our brain and how it works to understand speech, we may first think of the brain on a physiological level. After simple searches on the internet, one may find that speech production can be located in a specific area of the brain. However, when thinking about this topic on a systemic level, we end up with multiple answers to the same question. To answer the question on how we compute mental processes such as speech, there are two systems that have been theorized: Symbolic systems and Connectionism. The goal of this paper is to shed light on both of these systems and at the end, will uncover which system best fits our ability to produce and perceive speech. The idea of symbolic systems is that human cognitive processes consists of symbols, manipulated by some unit that reads those symbols and interprets them for us. There are different approaches to symbolic systems, such as the language of thought and computational theory of mind, both of which will be discussed and dissected later. Connectionist theory offers a more pattern-like way of learning by following rules that help interpret the patterns of language, as well as non-rule-like patterns that languages may contain. We follow these patterns from birth, following models such as the TRACE model. Both systems offer explanations of human cognition and understanding language, but connectionist models gives a better sense of how language is both perceived and produced in our minds

Get Access