Citation

Hardman D. J. Evol. Psychol. 2008; 6(2): 149-152.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, Akadémiai Kiadó)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Reviews the book, "Rethinking Cognitive Computation: Turing and the Science of the Mind" by Andrew Wells (2005). Wells's purpose in this book is not simply to correct past misunderstandings of what a Turing machine is. He also believes that we have not fully appreciated the implications of Turing's paper for cognitive psychology. In particular, the Turing machine concept has frequently been taken to support a computational theory of mind, whilst ignoring the link between mind and environment. By contrast, Wells argues that Turing saw the external environment as an important constraint on the way in which a Turing machine could perform its calculations. Thus, considerations of both internal and external structure are necessary for a complete account of psychology. Wells refers to this perspective as ecological functionalism. In summary, this book is a terrific achievement. The nature of the subject matter does mean that the reader has to do some work to get to grips with some of the material within; in fact, in some chapters Wells asks the reader to work through exercises to understand how a Turing machine moves between states. But, this book should be read by anyone interested in the relevance of Turing's work to current debates about the nature of cognition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)