Many of the computational models of cognitive activities that have been
proposed involve quite complex mathematical operations, such as
convolving an image with a Gaussian or finding a minimum of the entropy
function. Most humans (and certainly all animals) never learn this kind
of mathematics at all, almost no one learns it before college, and
almost no one can compute the convolution of a function with a Gaussian
in their head. What sense does it make to say that the “vision system”
is doing this kind of mathematics, whereas the actual person has no idea
how to do it?
Many of the computational models of cognitive activities that have been proposed involve quite complex mathematical operations, such as convolving an image with a Gaussian or finding a minimum of the entropy function. Most humans (and certainly all animals) never learn this kind of mathematics at all, almost no one learns it before college, and almost no one can compute the convolution of a function with a Gaussian in their head. What sense does it make to say that the “vision system” is doing this kind of mathematics, whereas the actual person has no idea how to do it?