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--- abstract: 'Behavioral scientists studied behavior; cognitive scientists study what generates behavior. Cognitive science is hence theoretical behaviorism (or behaviorism is experimental cognitivism). Behavior is data for a cognitive theorist. What counts as a theory of behavior? In this paper, a methodological constraint on theory construction -- "neoconstructivism" -- will be proposed (by analogy with constructivism in mathematics): Cognitive theory must be computable; given an encoding of the input to a behaving system, a theory must be able to compute (an encoding of) its outputs. It is a mistake to conclude, however, that this constraint requires cognitive theory to be computational, or that it follows from this that cognition is computation.' altloc: - ftp://ftp.princeton.edu/pub/harnad/Harnad/HTML/harnad82.neoconst.html - http://www.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Papers/Harnad/harnad82.neoconst.html chapter: 1 commentary: ~ commref: ~ confdates: ~ conference: ~ confloc: ~ contact_email: ~ creators_id: [] creators_name: - family: Harnad given: Stevan honourific: '' lineage: '' date: 1982 date_type: published datestamp: 1998-05-19 department: ~ dir: disk0/00/00/06/62 edit_lock_since: ~ edit_lock_until: ~ edit_lock_user: ~ editors_id: [] editors_name: - family: Simon given: T. honourific: '' lineage: '' - family: Scholes given: R. honourific: '' lineage: '' eprint_status: archive eprintid: 662 fileinfo: /style/images/fileicons/text_html.png;/662/1/harnad82.neoconst.html full_text_status: public importid: ~ institution: ~ isbn: ~ ispublished: pub issn: ~ item_issues_comment: [] item_issues_count: 0 item_issues_description: [] item_issues_id: [] item_issues_reported_by: [] item_issues_resolved_by: [] item_issues_status: [] item_issues_timestamp: [] item_issues_type: [] keywords: 'cognition, computation, computability, constructivism, theory' lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:54:10 latitude: ~ longitude: ~ metadata_visibility: show note: ~ number: ~ pagerange: 1-11 pubdom: FALSE publication: 'Language, mind and brain' publisher: 'Hillsdale NJ: Erlbaum' refereed: FALSE referencetext: ~ relation_type: [] relation_uri: [] reportno: ~ rev_number: 8 series: ~ source: ~ status_changed: 2007-09-12 16:32:38 subjects: - cog-psy - comp-sci-art-intel - phil-mind succeeds: ~ suggestions: ~ sword_depositor: ~ sword_slug: ~ thesistype: ~ title: 'Neoconstructivism: A Unifying Constraint for the Cognitive Sciences' type: bookchapter userid: 63 volume: ~