Introduction to Cognitive Science

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Introduction to Cognitive Science

• Part 1

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Outline

• Definition and Scope of Cognitive Science
• A Brief History
• Paradigms and Methods of Cognitive Science
• Multidisciplinarity in Cognitive Science

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Welcome to Cognitive Science

• The world of science, like that of art or
  religion, is a world created by the human
  imagination, but within very strict constraints
  imposed both by nature and the human brain.
  (Jacob, 1988 as quoted in Green et al., 1996).

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Some Questions for Thought

• How can you measure the mind?
• Is mental worlds of humans too complex for
  scientific understanding?
• Can you understand the mind without understanding
  the brain?
• Some answers dualism, functionalism-
  reductionism, psychophysical parallelism-Leibniz
  monads

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What IS Cognitive Science?

• The interdisciplinary study of mind and
  intelligence.
• Study of cognitive processes involved in the
  acquisition, representation and use of human
  knowledge.
• Scientific study of the mind, the brain, and
  intelligent behaviour, whether in humans,
  animals, machines or the abstract.
• A discipline in the process of construction.

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Intelligence vs. Cognition

• Cognition from Latin base cognitio know
  together
• The collection of mental processes and activities
  used in perceiving, learning, remembering,
  thinking, and understanding, and the act of using
  those processes

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Intelligence vs. Cognition

• Intelligence as a Natural Category
• IQ tests g general intelligence, or multiple
  intelligences
• The goal of cognitive science develop a theory
  of Intelligent Systems?
• The goal of artificial intelligence passing
  Turing Test?

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Disciplines in Cognitive Science

• Philosophy
• Neuroscience
• Computer Science- Artificial Intelligence
• Psychology Cognitive Psychology
• Linguistics
• Anthropology, Education

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History of Cognitive Science

• Cognitive Science has a very long past but a
  relatively short history (Gardner, 1985)
• Philosophy rationalism (Plato, Descartes, Kant,
  ...) vs empiricism (Aristotle, Locke, Hume, Mill,
  ...)
• Epistemology
• Nature vs nurture the mind-a tabula rasa?

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History of Cognitive Science

• Wundt, Titchener, James, Ebbinghaus
• Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
• Saussure langue vs parole
• Behaviourism Watson, Skinner
• psychology as a science of behaviour
• The Cognitive Revolution Chomsky, Miller,
  Newell, Simon, McCarthy

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Behaviourism and Cognitive Science
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History of Cognitive Science

• Brain structure and function (Gall, Spurzheim)
• Phrenology
• Localization of function Wernicke, Broca
• Neural impulse Helmholtz
• Complexity of the human cortex Lashley, Penfield
• The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat-a case for
  prosopagnosia

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History of Cognitive Science

• Birth date Symposium on Information Theory at
  MIT in 1956-Participants Chomsky, Newell, Simon,
  Miller...
• Cognitive Science journal in 1977
• Around 200 Cognitive Science programs worldwide
  in 1995.

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Cognitive Processes

• Learning and Memory
• Thinking and Reasoning (Planning, Decision
  Making, Problem Solving ...)
• Language
• Vision-Perception
• Social Cognition
• Metacognition
• Emotions
• Dreaming and Consciousness

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Theory Development in Cognitive Science

• Discovery, modification and evaluation of
  theories
• Theories, frameworks, models
• Evaluating cognitive theories
• psychological plausibility
• neurological plausibility
• representational-computational power
• practical applicability (education, design,
  intelligent systems)

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Fallacies

• Homonculus problem (little man) or ghost in the
  machine- Ryles regress processes to explain a
  behaviour are no less intelligent than a
  behaviour themselves, eg. Cognitive maps

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Unified Theories of Cognition

• Unify-the aim of science.
• ... positing a single system of mechanisms- a
  cognitive architecture- that operate together to
  produce the full range of human cognition.
  (Newell, 1990)
• Bring all parts together.
• Increase rate of cumulation of knowledge.
• Increase applicability.
• Approximate, rather than discriminate.

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Research Programme of Cognitive Science
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Methods of Cognitive Science

• Experimentation (psychology, linguistics,
  neuroscience)
• Computational Modeling (artificial intelligence,
  computational neuroscience)
• Introspection, Argumentation, Formal Logic and
  Mathematical Modeling (philosophy, linguistics)
• Ethnography (cognitive anthropology)

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Marrs Levels of Analysis
What/Why.
Behavioral
How-Alg Arch.
Comp. Model
How-Imp.
Neuro. data
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Paradigms of Cognitive Science

• Computational Representational Understanding of
  Mind
• cognitivism, functionalism
• Computational Theory of Mind Strong AI
• Symbolicism Connectionism- Dynamicism - Hybrid
  approaches

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Is cognition information processing?

• Church-Turing Thesis
• Universal Turing Machine
• The information-processing metaphor data
  algorithms
• Searles Chinese Room Argument

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Multidisciplinarity in Cognitive Science

• (Schunn et al, 1998) study on Journal Cognitive
  Science and Cognitive Science Society Meetings
  computer science and cognitive psychology
  dominates.
• Multidisciplinarity esp. impact of neuroscience
  on the growth
• Still only 30-50 of the work are
  multidisciplinary
• Nature of multidisciplinary collaborations

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Localist or Holist View of Multidisiplinarity

• (Von Eckardt, 2001) A field is multidisciplinary
  is individual research efforts are
  multidisciplinary-localist view
• A field is multidisciplinary if multiple
  disciplines contribute to the execution
• to its research program (elaborate layered set
  of goals directed at the main goal)-holist view

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Next Week

• From a Cognitive Science point of view
• Neuroscience the brain, research techniques
• Cognitive Psychology mental representations,
  cognitive processes such as perception, memory,
  reasoning