connectionist model

any of a class of theories hypothesizing that knowledge is encoded by the connections among representations stored in the brain rather than in the representations themselves. Connectionist models suggest that knowledge is distributed rather than being localized and that it is retrieved through spreading activation among connections. The connectionist model concept has been extended to artificial intelligence, particularly to its neural network models of problem solving. Compare information-processing model.

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Psychology term of the day

January 29th 2025

life instinct

in psychoanalytic theory, the drive comprising the self-preservation instinct, which is aimed at individual survival, and the sexual instinct, which is aimed at the survival of the species. In the dual instinct theory of Sigmund Freud, the life instinct, or Eros, stands opposed to the death instinct, or Thanatos. Also called erotic instinct.