The neural computational approach to cognitive and psychological processes is relatively new. However, Neural Computation and Psychology Workshops (NCPW), first held 16 years ago, lie at the heart of this fast-moving discipline, thanks to its interdisciplinary nature OCo bringing together researchers from different disciplines such as artificial intelligence, cognitive science, computer science, neurobiology, philosophy and psychology to discuss their work on models of cognitive processes."

In 1988, Jerry Fodor and Zenon Pylyshyn challenged connectionist theorists to explain the systematicity of cognition. In a highly influential critical analysis of connectionism, they argued that connectionist explanations, at best, can only inform us about details of the neural substrate; explanations at the cognitive level must be classical insofar as adult human cognition is essentially systematic. This volume reassesses Fodor and Pylyshyn's 'systematicity challenge' for a post-connectionist era, covering the most important recent developments in the systematicity debate.

The book shows a very original organization addressing in a non traditional way, but with a systematic approach, to who has an interest in using mathematics in the social sciences. The book is divided in four parts: (a) a historical part, written by Vittorio Capecchi which helps us understand the changes in the relationship between mathematics and sociology by analyzing the mathematical models of Paul F. Lazarsfeld, the model of simulation and artificial societies, models of artificial neural network and considering all the changes in scientific paradigms considered; (b) a part coordinated by Pier Luigi Contucci on mathematical models that consider the relationship between the mathematical models that come from physics and linguistics to arrive at the study of society and those which are born within sociology and economics; (c) a part coordinated by Massimo Buscema analyzing models of artificial neural networks; (d) a part coordinated by Bruno D’Amore which considers the relationship between mathematics and art. The title of the book "Mathematics and Society" was chosen because the mathematical applications exposed in the book allow you to address two major issues: (a) the general theme of technological innovation and quality of life (among the essays are on display mathematical applications to the problems of combating pollution and crime, applications to mathematical problems of immigration, mathematical applications to the problems of medical diagnosis, etc.) (b) the general theme of technical innovation and creativity, for example the art and mathematics section which connects to the theme of creative cities. The book is very original because it is not addressed only to those who are passionate about mathematical applications in social science but also to those who, in different societies, are: (a) involved in technological innovation to improve the quality of life; (b) involved in the wider distribution of technological innovation in different areas of creativity (as in the project "Creative Cities Network" of UNESCO).

Recent theoretical and experimental research on action and language processing in humans and animals clearly demonstrates the strict interaction and co-dependence between language and action. This has been demonstrated in neuroscientific investigations (e.g. Cappa&Perani, 2003; Pulvermuller 2003; Rizzolatti&Arbib, 1998), psychology experiments (e.g. Glenberg&Kaschak, 2002; Pecher&Zwaan 2005), evolutionary psychology (e.g. Corballis 2002) and computational modelling (e.g. Cangelosi&Parisi 2004; Massera et al. 2008). All these studies have important implication both for the understanding of the action basis of cognition in natural and artificial cognitive systems, as well as for the design of cognitive and communicative capabilities in robots (Cangelosi et al. 2005). The journal “Frontiers in Neurorobotics” is seeking submissions of new articles in the topic of action and language integration both in natural cognitive systems (e.g. humans and animals) and in artificial cognitive agents (robots and simulated agents). Manuscripts can regard new theoretical and computational investigations, as well as new neuroscientific and psychological investigations. Review articles in this topic are also welcome.

This volume features the complete text of all regular papers, posters, and summaries of symposia presented at the 14th annual meeting of the Cognitive Science Society.

The neural computational approach to cognitive and psychological processes is relatively new. However, Neural Computation and Psychology Workshops (NCPW), first held 16 years ago, lie at the heart of this fast-moving discipline, thanks to its interdisciplinary nature — bringing together researchers from different disciplines such as artificial intelligence, cognitive science, computer science, neurobiology, philosophy and psychology to discuss their work on models of cognitive processes.Once again, the Eleventh Neural Computation and Psychology Workshop (NCPW11), held in 2008 at the University of Oxford (England), reflects the interdisciplinary nature and wide range of backgrounds of this field. This volume is a collection of peer-reviewed contributions of most of the papers presented at NCPW11 by researchers from four continents and 15 countries.

The recent resurgence in neural network and connectionist approaches to modeling cognitive phenomena has led to a strong backlash from the classical cognitive psychology framework. Neurodynamics and Psychologypresents a collection of recent work that explores the connectionist versus the classical debate from a variety of perspectives, putting forward the case that the study of neurodynamics may represent the only way forward in the search for solutions to recently emerging problems for neural network models across a wide range of diverse research areas. The book is divided into three parts: Part I covers the general area of attention and action, Part II examines the psychobiology of time and the role of temporal mechanisms in providing a solution to the psychologically important binding problem, and Part III reports on the computational modeling of the dynamic psychological processing involved in language and memory. Neurodynamics and Psychology is of great interest to researchers in the areas of cognitive psychology, cognitive neuroscience, neural networks and neuropsychology. * The recent resurgence in neural network and connectionist approaches to modelling cognitive phenomena has led to a backlash from the classical cognitive psychology framework. The purpose of this book is to present recent work which explores the connectionist v classical debate, and produces a balanced view of work in the area. * The book argues that neurodynamics may represent the only way forward in the search for solutions to recently-emerging problems across a wide range of apparently idverse research areas.

Medin and Ross present the principles of cognitive psychology within a framework of ambiguity, that is, the mind's ability to adapt to the challenges posed by the ambiguity of the world around us. This introduction to cognition covers principles, applications, and research in cognition.

This book introduces a host of connectionist models of cognition and behavior. The major areas covered are high-level cognition, language, categorization and visual perception, and sensory and attentional processing. All of the articles cover unpublished research work. The key contribution of this book is that it focuses exclusively on the advances in connectionist modeling in psychology. The papers are relatively short, and were explicitly written to be accessible to both connectionist modelers and experimental psychologists.