Connexions was founded in 1997 as an online journal for work-in-progress in cognitive science. The project was the idea of Gavin Boyce and Keith Frankish, who were both PhD students in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Sheffield. Tom Dickins, then a PhD student in the Department of Human Communication Sciences, was soon recruited to the project and sponsorship was provided by the Hang Seng Centre for Cognitive Studies.
The name Connexions was chosen partly to reflect the editors’ interest in connectionist models of cognition (several articles in the early issues deal with connectionism) and partly to emphasize the interdisciplinary character of cognitive science and the editors’ belief in the importance of establishing connections between researchers in different areas of the field.
Two issues a year were produced during 1997 and 1998. When the original editors moved on, the project was taken over by Tom Simpson, also from the Sheffield Philosophy Department, and a fifth issue appeared in 2001. The journal subsequently reverted to Tom Dickins and Keith, and a sixth issue was produced in 2003 in an open peer commentary format.
Connexions ceased to be active after its sixth issue, but an archive of the issues was hosted by The Open University, where Keith then worked. In 2021 the archive moved here, to Keith’s website.
The contents of the issues are listed below, together with links to the full issues in pdf format.
Issue 1, January 1997
Full issue
Contents
- Anthony Atkinson Persons, Systems and Subsystems
- David J. Harrison The Searle Workout: Connectionism Hits the Chinese Gym
- Sally Perry Searle’s Account of Thought and its Expression
Issue 2, August 1997
Full issue
Contents
- Andrew Bailey PDP, Levels, and the Status of Explanation
- Jill Boucher Review of Elman et al., Rethinking Innateness
- T. E. Dickins Review of Steven Mithen, The Prehistory of the Mind
- David Byrd Report on the Vancouver Meta-Representation Conference
- Margaret Clegg A Personal View of the Ciba Open Meeting
- T. E. Dickins The State of the Evolutionary Art in Psychology: Report from the 1997 BPS Conference
- Jennie Hawcroft Report on the Second Hang Seng Workshop on the Evolution of Mind
- K. A. Wilkinson Themes from the Davidson Conference at the Bolton Institute
Issue 3, January 1998
Full issue
Contents
- Andy Clark Extract from a forthcoming paper ‘Twisted Tales’
- Jill Boucher Comments on Clark’s paper
- Seth Bullock Comments on Clark’s paper
- Gavin Boyce Review of Ralph D. Ellis, Questioning Consciousness
- Jill Boucher Review of Horst Hendriks-Jansen, Catching Ourselves in the Act
- Peter Carruthers Rocco J. Genarro, Consciousness and Self-Consciousness
- T. E. Dickins Review of Richard Byrne’s paper at the BPS London Conference
- Adam Morton Review of Paul Bloom’s Hang Seng paper
Issue 4, October 1998
Full issue
Contents
- Lars Hall The Enemy from Within
- Ullin Place Behaviourism as a Standpoint in Linguistics
- Ullin Place Evidence for the Role of Operant Reinforcement in the Acquisition and Maintenance of Linguistic Competence
- Mary Strate Review of Terrence Deacon, The Symbolic Species
- Joao Teixeira Review of Michael Gazzaniga, The Mind’s Past
- Jill Boucher Review of Stephen Pinker, How the Mind Works
Issue 5, March 2001
Full issue
Contents
- T. E. Dickins On the Origin of Symbols
- Asim Roy Connectionism is Nothing but Control Theory
- Tom Stafford Review of George Dyson, Darwin Among the Machines
Issue 6, August 2003
Full issue
Contents
- R. J. Siegert & A. Ward The Evolution of the Social Mind: Implications for Psychopathology Research
- J. Fitness & T. I. Case The Emotional Brain Drives the Social Mind
- K. R. Laws A Non-specific Non-module?
- R. J. Siegert & A. Ward Psychopathology and the Evolved Social Mind: Responses to Commentaries
Disclaimer: The views expressed in the articles and reviews in Connexions are those of their respective authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the editors of Connexions.