Abstract

There are many conflicting views concerning the nature of distributed representation, its compatibility or otherwise with symbolic representation, and its importance in characterizing the nature of connectionist models and their relationship to more traditional symbolic approaches to understanding cognition. Many have simply assumed that distribution is merely an implementation issue, and that symbolic mechanisms can be designed to take advantage of the virtues of distribution if so desired. Others, meanwhile, see the use of distributed representation as marking a fundamental difference between the two approaches. One reason for this diversity of opinion is the fact that the relevant notions - especially that of