Education
He received a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Columbia University in 1970, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1975.
academician university professor
He received a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Columbia University in 1970, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1975.
He is best known for his work on statistical learning and Parallel Distributed Processing, applying connectionist models (or neural networks) to explain cognitive phenomena such as spoken word recognition and visual word recognition. McClelland is to a large extent responsible for the large increase in scientific interest for connectionism in the 1980s. McClelland born on December 1, 1948 to Walter Moore and Frances (Shaffer) McClelland.
In 1986 McClelland published Parallel Distributed Processing: Explorations in the Microstructure of Cognition with David Rumelhart, which some still regard as a bible for cognitive scientists.
His present work focuses on learning, memory processes, and psycholinguistics, still within the framework of connectionist models. McClelland and David Rumelhart are known for their debate with Steven Pinker and Alan Prince regarding the necessity of a language-specific learning module.
In fall 2006 McClelland moved to Stanford University from Carnegie Mellon University, where he was a professor of psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience. He also holds a part-time appointment as Consulting Professor at the Neuroscience and Aphasia Research Unit (NARU) within the School of Psychological Sciences, University of Manchester.
Mind & Brain Prize University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award in psychology, 2002 William W. Cumming prize from Columbia University, 1970 Research Scientist Development Award from the National Institute of Mental Health, 1981-1986, 1987-1997 Fellow, National Science Foundation, 1970-1973 Rumelhart Prize, 2010 Commander of Order of Leopold de Carvalho-Heineken Prize, 2014.
National Academy of Sciences.
