Modular programming: Difference between revisions

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==Modularity in Cognitive Science==

The question of whether mind is structured in a modular fashion is a prominent one in the [[cognitive science]]s. The extremebasic modular position, as articulated by [[Jerry Fodor]] in his 1983 Monograph ''The Modularity of Mind'', essentially argues that mind is composed of '''independent''', closed, '''___domain-specific''' processing modules governed by a central controlling module, similar to the main program of a modular computer program. Fodor's proposal includes only lower-level cognitive processes, while he argues that higher-level processes are not modular. (See Also: [[Modularity of Mind]])

Other perspectives on modularity come from [[evolutionary psychology]], particularly from the work of [[Leda Cosmides]] and [[John Tooby]]. This perspective suggests that modules are units of mental processing that evolved in response to selection pressures. On this view, much modern human psychological activity is rooted in adaptations that occured earlier in [[human evolution]], when [[natural selection]] was forming the modern human species.