connectionism

American  

[kuh-nek-shuh-niz-uhm] / kəˈnɛk ʃəˌnɪz əm /

noun

Psychology.

1. the theory that all mental processes can be described as the operation of inherited or acquired bonds between stimulus and response.

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connectionism British  

/ kəˈnɛkʃənɪzəm /

noun

1. psychol the theory that the connections between brain cells mediate thought and govern behaviour

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Etymology

Origin of connectionism

connection + -ism

Example Sentences

Classical AI research—particularly the branch known as connectionism, the basis for artificial neural networks—adheres to the outside-in, tabula rasa model.

From Scientific American • May 31, 2022

Domingos divides the field into five contemporary machine-learning paradigms—evolutionary algorithms, connectionism and neural networks, symbolism, Bayes networks, and analogical reasoning—which he imagines being unified in one future “master algorithm” capable of learning nearly anything.

From Slate • Sep. 25, 2015

The next turn came in more recent decades as a cross-disciplinary group of researchers, including Seung, hit on a new way of thinking that is described as connectionism.

From New York Times • Jan. 8, 2015