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Modularity in Knowledge Representation and Natural-Language
Understanding.
Jay L. Garfield, editor.
© 1991 The MIT Press.
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Introduction
Jay Lf Garfield
The modularity hypothesis distinguishes sharply between input systems
(tentatively including the language-processing system and the perceptual
systems) and central cognitive system (including those responsible for
much of long -term memory and general-purpose reasoning). The distinc -
tion is drawn in terms of a cluster of properties argued- principally by
Fodor (1983)- to be both coincident and characteristic of modular input
systems: domain specificity , mandatoriness, speed, and informational
encapsulation . Input systems are argued to be fast, mandatory , informa -
tionally encapsulated, and domain specific; central processes are hypothe -
sized to be typically slow I optional , informationally porous , and general
purpose, communicating freely among themselves and receiving input
from and sending output to all the modular input and output systems.
This challenging hypothesis has a number of theoretical and method -
ological implica