How Does our Mind Work?

• New Insight: �Computational Theory of Mind�

• Knowledge, Beliefs, and Skills are �physical bits, bytes of information�

• These bits and bytes are then chunked and linked together to form symbols, patterns, and relationships.

• Information resides in patterns of data and in relationships of logic

• Insight enables us to �keep beliefs and desires in our explanations of behavior while planting them squarely in the physical universe.� (Stephen Pinker, How Does Our Mind Work, 1997 p. 25)

• Also might explain why attitudes are so resistant to change -- they are probably part of a larger long-term network of connections, a �brain oak tree�...

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