Computational-Representational Understanding of Mind
Encyclopedia
Computational representational understanding of mind (abbreviated CRUM) is an hypothesis
in cognitive science
which proposes that thinking is performed by computations operating on representations. This hypothesis assumes that the mind has mental representations analogous to data structures and computational procedures analogous to algorithms, such that computer programs using algorithms applied to data structures can model the mind and its processes.
There is much disagreement on this hypothesis, but CRUM has been the most theoretically and experimentally successful approach to mind ever developed (Paul Thagard, 2005).
Hypothesis
A hypothesis is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. The term derives from the Greek, ὑποτιθέναι – hypotithenai meaning "to put under" or "to suppose". For a hypothesis to be put forward as a scientific hypothesis, the scientific method requires that one can test it...
in cognitive science
Cognitive science
Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary scientific study of mind and its processes. It examines what cognition is, what it does and how it works. It includes research on how information is processed , represented, and transformed in behaviour, nervous system or machine...
which proposes that thinking is performed by computations operating on representations. This hypothesis assumes that the mind has mental representations analogous to data structures and computational procedures analogous to algorithms, such that computer programs using algorithms applied to data structures can model the mind and its processes.
There is much disagreement on this hypothesis, but CRUM has been the most theoretically and experimentally successful approach to mind ever developed (Paul Thagard, 2005).