Positive connections within subnetworks and negative connections between subnetworks represent the contraint that only one interpretation can occur at a time. Depending upon initial activation level of each unit and upon the outside input to the network, simultaneous activity across the network will eventually settle into a higher state of activation of one subnetwork, one interpretation of the cube. Again, units in such a network might include metric information about distance between the cube junctions and such an augmented network might show the same kind of size illusion that humans experience. But, also again, the more important point is the difference in possible machine architectures. Summary Symbolic machines seem to operate like our conscious experience, for example, in problem solving were we think in terms of words, images, or other symbols.
Symbolic machines are similar to the seemingly successive, step-wise, discrete nature of awareness.
Connectionist machines seem to operate like our brain, for example, in networks of interconnected neurons all simultaneously active, but with different levels of activation. Connectionist machines are similar to the largely parallel, simultaneous, continuous nature of the nervous system. A central question is cognitive science is whether symbolic or connectionist architectures are most descriptive of human beings. Our brain seems to be a connectionist in nature. Interpreting line drawings of curved objects.