Slide 1. Psychology 386b Fundamentals of Cognitive Science. Slide 2 Cognitive Science?

Transcription

1 Slide 1 Psychology 386b Fundamentals of Cognitive Science Instructor: Kevin D. Johnston Office: Rm SSC kjohnsto@uwo.ca Slide 2 Cognitive Science? This course deals with the field of Cognitive Science (CS). If we are to understand the field, we must first define it. A strict definition of CS is difficult to come by, most definitions seem somewhat vague. Note, for instance the following definitions: Slide 3 Cognitive Science is academia s best shot at an integrated, multidisciplinary science of mind Cognitive Science is a discipline with both theoretical and experimental components that, inter alia, deals with knowing. The disciplines that traditionally comprise the core of CS are AI, linguistics, philosophy, and cognitive psychology. The boundary disciplines are neuroscience, ethnoscience, and ethology. (O Nuallain, 1995)

2 Slide 4 Cognitive Science is the study of intelligence and intelligent systems, with particular reference to intelligent behaviour as computation intelligence is to be judged by the ability to perform intellectual tasks, independent of the nature of the physical system that exhibits this ability. Cognitive Science, defined as the study of intelligence and its computational processes, can be approached in several ways. We can undertake to construct an abstract theory of intelligence processes, devorecd from specific physical or biological implementations. We can study human (or animal) intelligence, seeking to abstracts a theory of intelligent processes from the behaviour of intelligent organisms. Or we can study computer intelligence, seeking trying to learn the computational principles that underly the organization of intelligent computer programs. Slide 5 we define cognitive science as the study of intelligence and its computational processes in humans (and animals), in computers, and in the abstract. (Simon & Kaplan, 1989) Slide 6 One of the most important intellectual developments of the past few decades has been the birth of an exciting new interdisciplinary field called cognitive science. Researchers in psychology, linguistics, computer science, philosophy, and neuroscience realized that they were asking many of the same questions about the nature of the human mind The word cognitive refers to perceiving and knowing. Thus, cognitive science is the science of mind. Cognitive scientists seek to understand perceiving, thinking, remembering, understanding languages, learning, and other mental phenomena. Their research is remarkably diverse, ranging from observing children, through programming computers to do complex problem solving, to analyzing the nature of meaning. (Stillings, Feinstein, Garfield, Rissland, Rosenbaum, Weisler, & Ward, 1987)

3 Slide 7 I define cognitive science as a contemporary, empirically based effort to answer long standing epistomological questions - particularly those concerned with the nature of knowledge, its components, its sources, its development, and its deployment. The term cognitive science is sometimes extended to include all forms of knowledge - animate as well as inanimate, human as well as non human - I apply the term chiefly to efforts to explain human knowledge. I am interested in whether questions that intrigued our philosophical ancestors can be decisively answered, instructively reformulated, or permanently scuttled. Slide 8 Of the various features or aspects generally associated with cognitive scientific efforts, I consider five to be of paramount importance. The belief that when talking about human cognitive activities, it is necessary to speak about mental representations, and to posit a level of analysis wholly separate from the biological or neurological, on the one hand, and the sociological or cultural, on the other. Slide 9 Second, there is the faith that central to an understanding of the human mind is the electronic computer. Not only are computers indispensable for carrying out studies of various sorts, but, more crucially, the computer also serves as the most viable model of how the human mind functions.

4 Slide 10 The third feature of cognitive science is is the deliberate decision to de-emphasize certain factors which may be important for cognitive functioning, but whose inclusion at this point would unnecessarily complicate the cognitive-scientific enterprise. These factors include the influence of affective factors or emotion, the contribution of historical and cultural factors, and the role of the background context in which particular thoughts and actions occur. Slide 11 As a fourth feature, cognitive scientists harbour the faith that much is to be gained from interdisciplinary studies. At present most cognitive scientists are drawn from the ranks of specific disciplines - in particular, philosophy, psychology, artificial intelligence, linguistics, anthropology, and neuroscience. Slide 12 A fifth and somewhat more controversial feature is the claim that a key ingredient in contemporary cognitive science is the agenda of issues, and the set of concerns, which have long exercised epistemologists in the Western philosophical tradition. (Gardner, 1985)

5 Slide 13 What then IS Cognitive Science? The interdisciplinary study of processes such as thought, knowledge, problem solving, language and perception. May be studied in humans, machines, and animals. Includes the disciplines of: Philosophy, Psychology, Artificial Intelligence, Linguistics, Neuroscience, Anthropology, Comparative Cognition.