---
abstract: 'It is argued that cognitive capacities can be understood as the outcome of the collective action of a set of agents created by tools that explore possible behaviours and train the agents to behave in such appropriate ways as may be discovered. The coherence of the whole system is assured by a combination of vetting the performance of new agents and dealing appropriately with any faults that the whole system may develop. This picture is shown to account for a range of cognitive capacities, including language.'
altloc: []
chapter: ~
commentary: ~
commref: ~
confdates: 'July 31 - August 4, 2000'
conference: 'ECHO IV (Emergence, Complexity, Hierarchy, Organisation) conference'
confloc: 'Odense, Denmark'
contact_email: ~
creators_id: []
creators_name:
  - family: Josephson
    given: Brian D.
    honourific: ''
    lineage: ''
date: 2000
date_type: published
datestamp: 2000-10-12
department: ~
dir: disk0/00/00/09/83
edit_lock_since: ~
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edit_lock_user: ~
editors_id: []
editors_name:
  - family: Farre
    given: George
    honourific: ''
    lineage: ''
  - family: Grund
    given: Cynthia
    honourific: ''
    lineage: ''
eprint_status: archive
eprintid: 983
fileinfo: /style/images/fileicons/text_html.png;/983/1/echo4.html|/style/images/fileicons/application_pdf.png;/983/5/echo4.pdf
full_text_status: public
importid: ~
institution: ~
isbn: ~
ispublished: inpress
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: 'development, cognition, learning, agents, neural networks, modules, tools, paradigms, domain specificity, issue resolution, language.'
lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:54:23
latitude: ~
longitude: ~
metadata_visibility: show
note: ~
number: ~
pagerange: ~
pubdom: FALSE
publication: ~
publisher: 'University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark'
refereed: FALSE
referencetext: |-
  Elman, J.L. et al. (1997); Rethinking Innateness: A Connectionist Perspective on Development, MIT.
  Karmiloff-Smith, A. (1992); Beyond Modularity: a Developmental Perspective on Cognitive Science, MIT. 
  Minsky, M. (1987); The Society of Mind; Heinemann.
  Pinker, S. (1994); The Language Instinct: the New Science of Language; Penguin.
  Quartz, S.R. and Sejnowski, T.J. (1997); The neural basis of cognitive development: A constructivist manifesto; Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Vol. 20 (4): pp. 537+.
  Winograd, T. (1972); Understanding Natural Language; Edinburgh.
relation_type: []
relation_uri: []
reportno: ~
rev_number: 14
series: ~
source: ~
status_changed: 2007-09-12 16:35:58
subjects:
  - dev-psy
succeeds: 150
suggestions: ~
sword_depositor: ~
sword_slug: ~
thesistype: ~
title: Constructional Tools as the Origin of Cognitive Capacities
type: confpaper
userid: 196
volume: ~
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