Computing as Modeling

Abstract

This chapter argues that input-output modeling is an essential element of computing, at least in current computational approaches in cognitive neuroscience. A model, in the context of this work, is a representational system that preserves patterns of relations of the target domain. A process input-output models a given target when its input-output function and some relation in the target have a shared formal structure. Finally, the chapter shows that modeling is often associated with computing, that it plays a major methodological role in discovering what function is being computed, and that it enhances a distinctive account of computational explanation.