Cognitive Science and its critics

1
Cognitive Science and its critics

• Cognitive Computing 2009
• 0. INTRODUCTION
• See http//www.doc.gold.ac.uk/mas02mb
• (Dr) Mark Bishop

2
Reading list (autumn 2007)

• Essential texts
• Harnish, R., (2002), Minds, Brains Computers,
  Blackwell, ISBN 0-631-21260-4
• Wheeler, M, (2005), Reconstructing the Cognitive
  World, The MIT Press, ISBN 0-262-73182-7
• Secondary texts
• Boden, M., (1990), The Philosophy of Artificial
  Intelligence, OUP, ISBN 0-19-824854-7
• Boden, M., (1996),The Philosophy of Artificial
  Life, OUP, ISBN 0-19-875155-9

3
An introduction to cognitive science

• Harnish, R., Minds, Brains, Computers
• Principles of Dualism
• Principles of Associationism
• Principles of Behaviourism
• Principles of Connectionism
• Principles of Identity Theory
• READING WEEK
• Principles of Functionalism
• Principles of Knowledge Representation (1)
• Principles of Knowledge Representation (2)
• The Computational Theory of Mind
• The Connectionist Theory of Mind

4
An introduction to the philosophy of A.I. and
A-Life

• Boden, M., The Philosophy of Artificial
  Intelligence
• Computing Machinery Intelligence, (Turing).
• Minds, Brains Programs, (Searle).
• Computer Science as Empirical Enquiry, (Newell
  Simon).
• Cognitive Wheels, (Dennett).
• Some Reductive Strategies in Cognitive
  Neurobiology, (Churchland Churchland).
• Making a mind versus modeling the brain, (Dreyfus
  Dreyfus).
• Boden, M., The Philosophy of Artificial Life
• Artificial Life, (Langton).
• From Robots to Rothko, (Wheeler)
• Learning from Functionalism, (Sober).
• An Approach to the Synthesis of Life, (Ray).

5
Reconstructing the cognitive world

• Wheeler, M, Reconstructing the Cognitive World.
• Week 1 Setting the Scene
• Week 2 Clank, Whirr, Cognition
• Week 3 Descartes Ghost
• Week 4 Explaining the Behaviour of Springs
• Week 5 Being Over There Beginning a
  Heideggarian Adventure
• Week 6 READING WEEK Being-In with the In-crowd
• Week 7 Doorknobs and Monads
• Week 8 Out of our Heads
• Week 9 Heideggarian Reflections
• Week 10 Its not a Threat, its an Opportunity
• Week 11 A Re-Beginning Its Cognitive Science,
  but not as we know it

6
Assessment

• Over the eleven week autumn and lent semesters
  each (5 5 10) weeks of lectures, (1)
  reading week - you will
• Lead research seminars (15 15 30).
• Each semester 15 of marks are available for your
  seminars and for your engagement with your
  colleagues seminars.
• Write an extended (5,000 word 70) essay (by end
  Lent term)
• Reconstructing the Cognitive World
• i.e. How - if at all is Wheelers Cognitive
  Science different from traditional Cognitive
  Science? How does it work? Does it explain
  consciousness? How is it different from other
  theories of mind? What is Wheelers take on
  representation? etc.

7
Cognitive Science and its critics

• Cognitive Computing autumn 2007
• FIRST STEPS (pre-sessional)
• (Dr) Mark Bishop

8
First steps in Cognitive Science

• How is it that cognitive systems - such as
  ourselves - can
• think
• hold conversations
• recognise objects
• play tennis
• feel pain see red.
• Cognitive Science is concerned with explaining
  how such behaviours are realised.

9
The representational theory of mind

• The representational theory of mind is the
  dominant theory of the nature of mental content
  in cognitive science, modern philosophy of mind
  and experimental psychology.
• In contrast to theories of naive or direct
  realism - where sense provides us with direct
  awareness of the external world - it postulates
  the existence of mental intermediaries
  representations - between the observing subject
  and the objects in the external world.
• These intermediaries stand for - represent - to
  the mind objects of the world.

10
What is Cognition?

• An attempt to explain the processes that underlie
  conscious thought.
• This leads to the
• Narrow Definition of Cognition the mental
  manipulation of mental representations.
• Broad Definition of Cognition involves
  investigation of
• Attention.
• Memory.
• Learning.
• Reasoning.
• Problem solving.

11
What is Computation?

• Broad Definition Is simply whatever computer
  do...
• give off heat
• play music
• watch DVDs etc.
• Narrow Definition Information processing.
• For Marr, like Newell Simon before him,
  Information Processing (IP) systems involve
  manipulation of symbols.
• IP systems have three levels of description
• What problems does the IP system solve?
• What algorithms does the IP system employ?
• How are the algorithms implemented?

12
What is Intelligence (1)

• We need to identify intelligence so that we can
  rightly ascribe the quality to a machine if, and
  when, it is present.
• Is Intelligence
• The deduction of mathematical proof?
• A computer demonstrated strength in this ability
  in 1963, Empirical explorations with the logic
  theory machine, (Newell, Shaw Simon).
• The ability to do intelligence tests?
• A computer demonstrated strength in this ability
  in 1968, A heuristic Program to solve Geometric
  Analogy Problems, (Minsky).

13
What is Intelligence (2)

• Answer specialised questions about a complex
  knowledge domain?
• A computer demonstrated strength in this ability
  in 1971, On Generality and Problem Solving ...,
  the DENDRAL Expert System project, (Feigenbaum et
  al).
• Answering general questions about a simple
  knowledge domain?
• A computer demonstrated strength in this ability
  in 1973, A Procedural Model of Language
  Understanding, (Winograd), SHRDLU the blocks
  world.

14
What is Intelligence (3)

• The ability to play a strong game of chess?
• A computer has demonstrated strength in this
  ability from 1988.
• The DEEP THOUGHT project (1988 - 1997).
• .. But did it have human help.
• In game two DB made one exceptionally good move..
• But then subsequently missed an obvious counter
  move (luckily for IBM so did Kasparov).

15
So, what is a chair?

• How do I know the object - pictured right - is a
  chair?
• Are there specific rules/features that define if
  a given object is a chair? I.e. has the given
  object
• A back?
• A seat?
• Four legs?
• It seems apparent that there is no one
  distinctive feature set necessary and sufficient
  for the property of chairiness.
• Thus there is no reason to look - as we have
  traditionally - for one, essential core in which
  the meaning of a concept (e.g. chair) is located
  and which is, therefore, common to all uses of
  that word.
• This lack of rigid rule based structure has posed
  serious problems for rule based, computational
  attempts to solve problems in object
  categorization.

16
On family resemblance

• An alternative approach to object categorization
  is suggested in the later work of the great
  twentieth century philosopher, Ludwig
  Wittgenstein.
• In Philosophical Investigations, Wittgenstein
  suggested family resemblance as a suitable
  analogy for the means of connecting particular
  uses of the same concept.
• In other words, we correctly say of something
  that it is a chair, iff it has a group of
  features in common - it shares a family
  resemblance to - objects we class as chairs.
• I.e. we should travel with the concept's uses
  through "a complicated network of similarities,
  overlapping and criss-crossing" (PI 66).
• Family resemblance also serves to exhibit the
  lack of boundaries and the distance from
  exactness that characterize different uses of the
  same concept

17
So what is Cognitive Science? (1)

• The Narrow Definition of Cognitive Science
• Cognitive Science is not an area of study but a
  doctrine
• Specifically the Computational Theory of Mind,
  (CTM).
• The mind/brain is a type of computer.
• But this definition of Cognitive Science is
  risky..
• If cognition turns out not to be computational
  then there is no Cognitive Science!

18
What is Cognitive Science? (2)

• Broad Definition the scientific study of
  cognition which involves
• Computer Science / Artificial Intelligence
• Instantiation of complex (intelligent) system in
  a real machine.
• Neuroscience
• Aims to provide a functional analysis of various
  portions of the brain.
• Psychology
• Investigation of attention, memory, learning,
  reasoning, problem solving etc.
• Linguistics
• Understanding of language. eg. Cholmskys work on
  transformative grammars.
• Anthropology
• Investigating cognitive phenomena from a cross
  cultural perspective.
• Philosophy
• Many problems in Cognitive Science are old
  philosophical problems recast in new language.
• The Mind/Body problem free will consciousness
  etc.