Computational models: a modest role for content

The computational theory of mind construes the mind as an information-processor and cognitive capacities as essentially representational capacities. Proponents of the view (hereafter, 'computationalists') claim a central role for representational content in computational models of these capacities. In this paper I argue that the standard view of the role of representational content in computational models is mistaken: I argue that representational content is to be understood as a gloss on the computational characterization of a cognitive process. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.