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Cognitive science
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary scientific study of

the mind and its processes. It examines what cognition is,
what it does and how it works. It includes research on
intelligence and behavior, especially focusing on how
information is represented, processed, and transformed (in
faculties such as perception, language, memory, reasoning,
and emotion) within nervous systems (human or other
animal) and machines (e.g. computers). Cognitive science
consists of multiple research disciplines, including
psychology, artificial intelligence, philosophy, neuroscience,
linguistics, anthropology, sociology, and education.[1] It
spans many levels of analysis, from low-level learning and
decision mechanisms to high-level logic and planning; from
neural circuitry to modular brain organization.

Contents
1 History
2 Principles
2.1 Levels of analysis
2.2 Interdisciplinary nature
2.3 Cognitive science: the term
3 Scope
3.1 Artificial intelligence
3.2 Attention
3.3 Knowledge, and Processing, of
Language
3.4 Learning and development
3.5 Memory
3.6 Perception and action
4 Research methods
4.1 Behavioral experiments
4.2 Brain imaging
4.3 Computational modeling
4.4 Neurobiological methods
5 Key findings
6 Criticism
7 Notable researchers
8 See also
9 References
10 Further reading
11 External links

Figure illustrating the fields that contributed to the

birth of cognitive science, including linguistics,
education, neuroscience, artificial Intelligence,
philosophy, anthropology, and psychology. Adapted
from Miller, George A (2003). "The cognitive
revolution: a historical perspective". TRENDS in
Cognitive Sciences 7.

Part of a series on Science

Formal sciences
Mathematics
Mathematical logic
Mathematical statistics
Computer science
Physical sciences
Physics
Applied physics Atomic physics

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History
Cognitive science has a pre-history traceable back to ancient
Greek philosophical texts (see Plato's Meno); and certainly must
include writers such as Descartes, David Hume, Immanuel Kant,
Benedict de Spinoza, Nicolas Malebranche, Pierre Cabanis,
Leibniz and John Locke. But, although these early writers
contributed greatly to the philosophical discovery of mind and
this would ultimately lead to the development of psychology,
they were working with an entirely different set of tools and core
concepts than those of the cognitive scientist.
The modern culture of cognitive science can be traced back to
the early cyberneticists in the 1930s and 1940s, such as Warren
McCulloch and Walter Pitts, who sought to understand the
organizing principles of the mind. McCulloch and Pitts
developed the first variants of what are now known as artificial
neural networks, models of computation inspired by the
structure of biological neural networks.
Another precursor was the early development of the theory of
computation and the digital computer in the 1940s and 1950s.
Alan Turing and John von Neumann were instrumental in these
developments. The modern computer, or Von Neumann machine,
would play a central role in cognitive science, both as a
metaphor for the mind, and as a tool for investigation.
In 1959, Noam Chomsky published a scathing review of B. F.
Skinner's book Verbal Behavior. At the time, Skinner's
behaviorist paradigm dominated psychology: Most psychologists
focused on functional relations between stimulus and response,
without positing internal representations. Chomsky argued that
in order to explain language, we needed a theory like generative
grammar, which not only attributed internal representations but
characterized their underlying order.
The term cognitive science was coined by Christopher LonguetHiggins in his 1973 commentary on the Lighthill report, which
concerned the then-current state of Artificial Intelligence
research.[2] In the same decade, the journal Cognitive Science
and the Cognitive Science Society were founded.[3] In 1982,
Vassar College became the first institution in the world to grant
an undergraduate degree in Cognitive Science.[4]
In the 1970s and early 1980s, much cognitive science research
focused on the possibility of artificial intelligence. Researchers
such as Marvin Minsky would write computer programs in
languages such as LISP to attempt to formally characterize the
steps that human beings went through, for instance, in making

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Computational physics
Condensed matter physics
Experimental physics Mechanics
Nuclear physics
Particle physics Plasma physics
Quantum mechanics (introduction)
Solid mechanics Theoretical physics
Thermodynamics Entropy
General relativity M-theory
Special relativity
Chemistry
Acid-base reaction theories Alchemy
Analytical chemistry Astrochemistry
Biochemistry Crystallography
Environmental chemistry Food science
Geochemistry Green chemistry
Inorganic chemistry Materials science
Molecular physics Nuclear chemistry
Organic chemistry Photochemistry
Physical chemistry Radiochemistry
Solid-state chemistry Stereochemistry
Supramolecular chemistry
Surface science Theoretical chemistry
Astronomy
Astrophysics Cosmology
Galactic astronomy Planetary geology
Planetary science Stellar astronomy
Earth sciences
Atmospheric sciences Ecology
Environmental science Geodesy
Geology Geomorphology
Geophysics Glaciology Hydrology
Limnology Mineralogy Oceanography
Paleoclimatology Palynology
Physical geography Soil science
Space science
Life sciences
Biology
Anatomy Astrobiology Biochemistry
Biogeography Biological engineering
Biophysics
Behavioral neuroscience Biotechnology
Botany Cell biology Conservation biology
Cryobiology
Developmental biology
Ecology Ethnobiology
Evolutionary biology (introduction)
Genetics (introduction)
Gerontology Immunology Limnology

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decisions and solving problems, in the hope of better

understanding human thought, and also in the hope of creating
artificial minds. This approach is known as "symbolic AI".
Eventually the limits of the symbolic AI research program
became apparent. For instance, it seemed to be unrealistic to
comprehensively list human knowledge in a form usable by a
symbolic computer program. The late 80s and 90s saw the rise of
neural networks and connectionism as a research paradigm.
Under this point of view, often attributed to James McClelland
and David Rumelhart, the mind could be characterized as a set
of complex associations, represented as a layered network.
Critics argue that there are some phenomena which are better
captured by symbolic models, and that connectionist models are
often so complex as to have little explanatory power. Recently
symbolic and connectionist models have been combined, making
it possible to take advantage of both forms of explanation.[5]

Principles
Levels of analysis
A central tenet of cognitive science is that a complete
understanding of the mind/brain cannot be attained by studying
only a single level. An example would be the problem of
remembering a phone number and recalling it later. One
approach to understanding this process would be to study
behavior through direct observation. A person could be
presented with a phone number, asked to recall it after some
delay. Then the accuracy of the response could be measured.
Another approach would be to study the firings of individual
neurons while a person is trying to remember the phone number.
Neither of these experiments on their own would fully explain
how the process of remembering a phone number works. Even if
the technology to map out every neuron in the brain in real-time
were available, and it were known when each neuron was firing,
it would still be impossible to know how a particular firing of
neurons translates into the observed behavior. Thus an
understanding of how these two levels relate to each other is
needed. This can be provided by a functional level account of
the process. Studying a particular phenomenon from multiple
levels creates a better understanding of the processes that occur
in the brain to give rise to a particular behavior. Marr[6] gave a
famous description of three levels of analysis:
1. the computational theory, specifying the goals of the
computation;
2. representation and algorithm, giving a representation of
the input and output and the algorithm which transforms

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Marine biology Microbiology

Molecular biology Neuroscience
Paleontology Parasitology Physiology
Radiobiology Soil biology
Systematics Theoretical biology
Toxicology Zoology
Social and
Behavioural sciences
Anthropology Archaeology
Criminology Demography
Economics Human geography
History Linguistics
Political science Psychology
Sociology
Applied sciences
Engineering
Agricultural Aerospace Biomedical
Chemical Civil Computer
Electrical Fire protection Genetic
Industrial Mechanical Military
Mining Nuclear Operations research
Robotics Software
Healthcare sciences
Biological engineering Dentistry
Epidemiology Health care Medicine
Nursing Pharmacy Social work
Veterinary medicine
Related topics
Interdisciplinarity
Applied physics Artificial intelligence
Bioethics Bioinformatics Biogeography
Biomedical engineering Biostatistics
Cognitive science Computational linguistics
Cultural studies Cybernetics
Environmental studies Ethnic studies
Evolutionary psychology Forestry
Geography Health
Library science Logic
Mathematical biology Mathematical physics
Scientific modelling Neural engineering
Neuroscience Political economy
Science and technology studies
Science studies Semiotics Sociobiology
Systems theory Transdisciplinarity
Urban planning

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one into the other; and

3. the hardware implementation, how algorithm and
representation may be physically realized.
(See also the entry on functionalism.)

Interdisciplinary nature

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Scientific method
History of science
Philosophy of science
Science policy
Humanities
Fringe science
Pseudoscience

Cognitive science is an interdisciplinary field with contributors

from various fields, including psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, philosophy of mind, computer science,
anthropology, sociology, and biology. Cognitive science tends to view the world outside the mind much as other
sciences do. Thus it too has an objective, observer-independent existence. The field is usually seen as
compatible with the physical sciences, and uses the scientific method as well as simulation or modeling, often
comparing the output of models with aspects of human behavior. Some doubt whether there is a unified
cognitive science and prefer to speak of the cognitive sciences in plural.[7]
Many, but not all, who consider themselves cognitive scientists have a functionalist view of the mindthe view
that mental states are classified functionally, such that any system that performs the proper function for some
mental state is considered to be in that mental state. According to some versions of functionalism, even
non-human systems, such as other animal species, alien life forms, or advanced computers can, in principle,
have mental states.

Cognitive science: the term

The term "cognitive" in "cognitive science" is "used for any kind of mental operation or structure that can be
studied in precise terms" (Lakoff and Johnson, 1999). This conceptualization is very broad, and should not be
confused with how "cognitive" is used in some traditions of analytic philosophy, where "cognitive" has to do
only with formal rules and truth conditional semantics.
The earliest entries for the word "cognitive" in the OED take it to mean roughly pertaining"to the action or
process of knowing". The first entry, from 1586, shows the word was at one time used in the context of
discussions of Platonic theories of knowledge. Most in cognitive science, however, presumably do not believe
their field is the study of anything as certain as the knowledge sought by Plato.[citation needed]

Scope
Cognitive science is a large field, and covers a wide array of topics on cognition. However, it should be
recognized that cognitive science is not equally concerned with every topic that might bear on the nature and
operation of the mind or intelligence. Social and cultural factors, emotion, consciousness, animal cognition,
comparative and evolutionary approaches are frequently de-emphasized or excluded outright, often based on
key philosophical conflicts. Another important mind-related subject that the cognitive sciences tend to avoid is
the existence of qualia, with discussions over this issue being sometimes limited to only mentioning qualia as a
philosophically-open matter. Some within the cognitive science community, however, consider these to be vital
topics, and advocate the importance of investigating them.[8]
Below are some of the main topics that cognitive science is concerned with. This is not an exhaustive list, but is
meant to cover the wide range of intelligent behaviors. See List of cognitive science topics for a list of various
aspects of the field.

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Artificial intelligence
Main article: Artificial intelligence
"... One major contribution of AI and cognitive science to psychology has been the information processing
model of human thinking in which the metaphor of brain-as-computer is taken quite literally. ." AAAI Web
pages (http://www.aaai.org/AITopics/html/cogsci.html#simon) .
Artificial intelligence (AI) involves the study of cognitive phenomena in machines. One of the practical goals of
AI is to implement aspects of human intelligence in computers. Computers are also widely used as a tool with
which to study cognitive phenomena. Computational modeling uses simulations to study how human intelligence
may be structured.[9] (See the section on computational modeling in the Research Methods section.)
There is some debate in the field as to whether the mind is best viewed as a huge array of small but individually
feeble elements (i.e. neurons), or as a collection of higher-level structures such as symbols, schemas, plans, and
rules. The former view uses connectionism to study the mind, whereas the latter emphasizes symbolic
computations. One way to view the issue is whether it is possible to accurately simulate a human brain on a
computer without accurately simulating the neurons that make up the human brain.

Attention
Main article: Attention
Attention is the selection of important information. The human mind is bombarded with millions of stimuli and it
must have a way of deciding which of this information to process. Attention is sometimes seen as a spotlight,
meaning one can only shine the light on a particular set of information. Experiments that support this metaphor
include the dichotic listening task (Cherry, 1957) and studies of inattentional blindness (Mack and Rock, 1998).
In the dichotic listening task, subjects are bombarded with two different messages, one in each ear, and told to
focus on only one of the messages. At the end of the experiment, when asked about the content of the
unattended message, subjects cannot report it.

Knowledge, and Processing, of Language

Main articles: Theoretical linguistics, Cognitive linguistics,
Language, Linguistics, and Psycholinguistics
The ability to learn and understand language is an extremely complex
process. Language is acquired within the first few years of life, and all
humans under normal circumstances are able to acquire language
proficiently. A major driving force in the theoretical linguistic field is
discovering the nature that language must have in the abstract in order
to be learned in such a fashion. Some of the driving research questions
in studying how the brain itself processes language include: (1) To what
extent is linguistic knowledge innate or learned?, (2) Why is it more
difficult for adults to acquire a second-language than it is for infants to
acquire their first-language?, and (3) How are humans able to
understand novel sentences?

A well known example of a Phrase

structure tree. This is one way of
representing human language that shows
how different components are organized
hierarchically.

The study of language processing ranges from the investigation of the sound patterns of speech to the meaning
of words and whole sentences. Linguistics often divides language processing into orthography, phonology and

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phonetics, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. Many aspects of language can be studied from each
of these components and from their interaction.
The study of language processing in cognitive science is closely tied to the field of linguistics. Linguistics was
traditionally studied as a part of the humanities, including studies of history, art and literature. In the last fifty
years or so, more and more researchers have studied knowledge and use of language as a cognitive
phenomenon, the main problems being how knowledge of language can be acquired and used, and what
precisely it consists of. Linguists have found that, while humans form sentences in ways apparently governed by
very complex systems, they are remarkably unaware of the rules that govern their own speech. Thus linguists
must resort to indirect methods to determine what those rules might be, if indeed rules as such exist. In any
event, if speech is indeed governed by rules, they appear to be opaque to any conscious consideration.

Learning and development

Main articles: Learning and Developmental psychology
Learning and development are the processes by which we acquire knowledge and information over time. Infants
are born with little or no knowledge (depending on how knowledge is defined), yet they rapidly acquire the
ability to use language, walk, and recognize people and objects. Research in learning and development aims to
explain the mechanisms by which these processes might take place.
A major question in the study of cognitive development is the extent to which certain abilities are innate or
learned. This is often framed in terms of the nature versus nurture debate. The nativist view emphasizes that
certain features are innate to an organism and are determined by its genetic endowment. The empiricist view, on
the other hand, emphasizes that certain abilities are learned from the environment. Although clearly both genetic
and environmental input is needed for a child to develop normally, considerable debate remains about how
genetic information might guide cognitive development. In the area of language acquisition, for example, some
(such as Steven Pinker)[10] have argued that specific information containing universal grammatical rules must be
contained in the genes, whereas others (such as Jeffrey Elman and colleagues in Rethinking Innateness) have
argued that Pinker's claims are biologically unrealistic. They argue that genes determine the architecture of a
learning system, but that specific "facts" about how grammar works can only be learned as a result of
experience.

Memory
Main article: Memory
Memory allows us to store information for later retrieval. Memory is often thought of consisting of both a
long-term and short-term store. Long-term memory allows us to store information over prolonged periods (days,
weeks, years). We do not yet know the practical limit of long-term memory capacity. Short-term memory allows
us to store information over short time scales (seconds or minutes).
Memory is also often grouped into declarative and procedural forms. Declarative memory--grouped into subsets
of semantic and episodic forms of memory--refers to our memory for facts and specific knowledge, specific
meanings, and specific experiences (e.g., Who was the first president of the U.S.A.?, or "What did I eat for
breakfast four days ago?). Procedural memory allows us to remember actions and motor sequences (e.g. how to
ride a bicycle) and is often dubbed implicit knowledge or memory .
Cognitive scientists study memory just as psychologists do, but tend to focus in more on how memory bears on
cognitive processes, and the interrelationship between cognition and memory. One example of this could be,

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what mental processes does a person go through to retrieve a long-lost memory? Or, what differentiates between
the cognitive process of recognition (seeing hints of something before remembering it, or memory in context)
and recall (retrieving a memory, as in "fill-in-the-blank")?

Perception and action

Main article: Perception
Perception is the ability to take in information via the senses, and process it in some
way. Vision and hearing are two dominant senses that allow us to perceive the
environment. Some questions in the study of visual perception, for example,
include: (1) How are we able to recognize objects?, (2) Why do we perceive a
continuous visual environment, even though we only see small bits of it at any one
time? One tool for studying visual perception is by looking at how people process
optical illusions. The image on the right of a Necker cube is an example of a
bistable percept, that is, the cube can be interpreted as being oriented in two
different directions.

The Necker cube, an

example of an optical
illusion

The study of haptic (tactile), olfactory, and gustatory stimuli also fall into the
domain of perception.
Action is taken to refer to the output of a system. In humans, this is accomplished through motor responses.
Spatial planning and movement, speech production, and complex motor movements are all aspects of action.

Research methods
Many different methodologies are used to study cognitive science. As the field is highly interdisciplinary,
research often cuts across multiple areas of study, drawing on research methods from psychology, neuroscience,
computer science and systems theory.

Behavioral experiments
In order to have a description of what constitutes intelligent behavior, one must study behavior itself. This type
of research is closely tied to that in cognitive psychology and psychophysics. By measuring behavioral responses
to different stimuli, one can understand something about how those stimuli are processed. Lewandowski and
Strohmetz (2009) review a collection of innovative uses of behavioral measurement in psychology including
behavioral traces, behavioral observations, and behavioral choice.[11] Behavioral traces are pieces of evidence
that indicate behavior occurred, but the actor is not present (e.g., litter in a parking lot or readings on an electric
meter). Behavioral observations involve the direct witnessing of the actor engaging in the behavior (e.g.,
watching how close a person sits next to another person). Behavioral choices are when a person selects between
two or more options (e.g., voting behavior, choice of a punishment for another participant).
Reaction time. The time between the presentation of a stimulus and an appropriate response can
indicate differences between two cognitive processes, and can indicate some things about their nature.
For example, if in a search task the reaction times vary proportionally with the number of elements,
then it is evident that this cognitive process of searching involves serial instead of parallel processing.
Psychophysical responses. Psychophysical experiments are an old psychological technique, which has
been adopted by cognitive psychology. They typically involve making judgments of some physical
property, e.g. the loudness of a sound. Correlation of subjective scales between individuals can show

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cognitive or sensory biases as compared to actual physical measurements. Some examples include:
sameness judgments for colors, tones, textures, etc.
threshold differences for colors, tones, textures, etc.
Eye tracking. This methodology is used to study a variety of cognitive processes, most notably visual
perception and language processing. The fixation point of the eyes is linked to an individual's focus of
attention. Thus, by monitoring eye movements, we can study what information is being processed at a
given time. Eye tracking allows us to study cognitive processes on extremely short time scales. Eye
movements reflect online decision making during a task, and they provide us with some insight into
the ways in which those decisions may be processed.

Brain imaging
Main article: Neuroimaging
Brain imaging involves analyzing activity within the brain while performing various
cognitive tasks. This allows us to link behavior and brain function to help
understand how information is processed. Different types of imaging techniques
vary in their temporal (time-based) and spatial (location-based) resolution. Brain
imaging is often used in cognitive neuroscience.
Single photon emission computed tomography and Positron emission
tomography. SPECT and PET use radioactive isotopes, which are
injected into the subject's bloodstream and taken up by the brain. By
observing which areas of the brain take up the radioactive isotope, we
can see which areas of the brain are more active than other areas. PET
has similar spatial resolution to fMRI, but it has extremely poor temporal
resolution.

Image of the human head

with the brain. The arrow
indicates the position of
the hypothalamus.

Electroencephalography. EEG measures the electrical fields generated

by large populations of neurons in the cortex by placing a series of electrodes on the scalp of the
subject. This technique has an extremely high temporal resolution, but a relatively poor spatial
resolution.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging. fMRI measures the relative amount of oxygenated blood
flowing to different parts of the brain. More oxygenated blood in a particular region is assumed to
correlate with an increase in neural activity in that part of the brain. This allows us to localize
particular functions within different brain regions. fMRI has moderate spatial and temporal resolution.
Optical imaging. This technique uses infrared transmitters and receivers to measure the amount of
light reflectance by blood near different areas of the brain. Since oxygenated and deoxygenated blood
reflects light by different amounts, we can study which areas are more active (i.e., those that have
more oxygenated blood). Optical imaging has moderate temporal resolution, but poor spatial
resolution. It also has the advantage that it is extremely safe and can be used to study infants' brains.
Magnetoencephalography. MEG measures magnetic fields resulting from cortical activity. It is similar
to EEG, except that it has improved spatial resolution since the magnetic fields it measures are not as
blurred or attenuated by the scalp, meninges and so forth as the electrical activity measured in EEG
is. MEG uses SQUID sensors to detect tiny magnetic fields.

Computational modeling

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Computational models require a mathematically and logically formal

representation of a problem. Computer models are used in the simulation
and experimental verification of different specific and general properties of
intelligence. Computational modeling can help us to understand the
functional organization of a particular cognitive phenomenon. There are two
basic approaches to cognitive modeling. The first is focused on abstract
mental functions of an intelligent mind and operates using symbols, and the
second, which follows the neural and associative properties of the human
brain, and is called subsymbolic.

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A Neural network with two layers.

Symbolic modeling evolved from the computer science paradigms using the technologies of
Knowledge-based systems, as well as a philosophical perspective, see for example "Good
Old-Fashioned Artificial Intelligence" (GOFAI). They are developed by the first cognitive researchers
and later used in information engineering for expert systems . Since the early 1990s it was generalized
in systemics for the investigation of functional human-like intelligence models, such as personoids,
and, in parallel, developed as the SOAR environment. Recently, especially in the context of cognitive
decision making, symbolic cognitive modeling is extended to socio-cognitive approach including
social and organization cognition interrelated with a sub-symbolic not conscious layer.
Subsymbolic modeling includes Connectionist/neural network models. Connectionism relies on the
idea that the mind/brain is composed of simple nodes and that the power of the system comes
primarily from the existence and manner of connections between the simple nodes. Neural nets are
textbook implementations of this approach. Some critics of this approach feel that while these models
approach biological reality as a representation of how the system works, they lack explanatory powers
because complicated systems of connections with even simple rules are extremely complex and often
less interpretable than the system they model.
Other approaches gaining in popularity include the use of Dynamical systems theory and also techniques putting
symbolic models and connectionist models into correspondence (Neural-symbolic integration). Bayesian models,
often drawn from machine learning, are also gaining popularity.
All the above approaches tend to be generalized to the form of integrated computational models of a
synthetic/abstract intelligence, in order to be applied to the explanation and improvement of individual and
social/organizational decision-making and reasoning.

Neurobiological methods
Research methods borrowed directly from neuroscience and neuropsychology can also help us to understand
aspects of intelligence. These methods allow us to understand how intelligent behavior is implemented in a
physical system.
Single-unit recording
Direct brain stimulation
Animal models
Postmortem studies

Key findings
Cognitive science has much to its credit. Among other accomplishments, it has given rise to models of human
cognitive bias and risk perception, and has been influential in the development of behavioral finance, part of
economics. It has also given rise to a new theory of the philosophy of mathematics, and many theories of

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artificial intelligence, persuasion and coercion. It has made its presence firmly known in the philosophy of
language and epistemology - a modern revival of rationalism - as well as constituting a substantial wing of
modern linguistics. Fields of cognitive science have been influential in understanding the brain's particular
functional systems (and functional deficits) ranging from speech production to auditory processing and visual
perception. It has made progress in understanding how damage to particular areas of the brain affect cognition,
and it has helped to uncover the root causes and results of specific disfunction, such as dyslexia, anopia, and
hemispatial neglect.

Criticism
See also: Functionalism (philosophy of mind)#Criticism
In a paper written shortly before his death, B.F. Skinner stated that "cognitive science is the creation science of
psychology."[12]

Notable researchers
See also: List of cognitive scientists
Some of the more recognized names in cognitive science are usually either the most controversial or the most
cited. Within philosophy familiar names include Daniel Dennett who writes from a computational systems
perspective, John Searle known for his controversial Chinese Room, Jerry Fodor who advocates functionalism,
and Douglas Hofstadter, famous for writing Gdel, Escher, Bach, which questions the nature of words and
thought. In the realm of linguistics, Noam Chomsky and George Lakoff have been influential (both have also
become notable as political commentators). In Artificial intelligence Marvin Minsky, Herbert Simon, Allen
Newell, and Kevin Warwick are prominent. Popular names in the discipline of psychology include James
McClelland and Steven Pinker. Anthropologists Dan Sperber, Edwin Hutchins, Scott Atran, Pascal Boyer and
Joseph Henrich have been involved in collaborative projects with cognitive and social psychologists, political
scientists and evolutionary biologists in attempts to develop general theories of culture formation, religion and
political association.

See also
Affective science
Cognitive science of religion
Cognitive bias
Cognitive linguistics
Cognitive neuropsychology
Cognitive neuroscience
Cognitive psychology
Computational neuroscience
Decision theory
Decision field theory
Dynamicism
Educational psychology
Educational neuroscience
Heterophenomenology
Human Cognome Project

Indiana Archives of Cognitive Science

Informatics (academic field)
Embodied cognitive science
Embodied cognition
Spatial Cognition
Enactivism
Linguistics
List of cognitive scientists
List of institutions granting degrees in
cognitive science
Malleable intelligence
Neural Darwinism
Neural network
Neuropsychology
Neuroscience

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Personal information management (PIM)

Philosophy of mind
Psycholinguistics
Psychology
Simulated consciousness
Situated cognition

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Society of Mind theory

Speech-Language Pathology
Concept Mining
Thought
Quantum Cognition

References
1. ^ Thagard, Paul, Cognitive Science (http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2008/entries/cognitive-science/) , The
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2008 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.).
2. ^ Longuet-Higgins, H. C. (1973). "Comments on the Lighthill Report and the Sutherland Reply", in Artificial
Intelligence: a paper symposium, Science Research Council, 35-37
3. ^ Cognitive Science Society (http://www.cognitivesciencesociety.org/about_description.html)
4. ^ http://cogsci.vassar.edu/about/index.html
5. ^ Artur S. d'Avila Garcez, Luis C. Lamb and Dov M. Gabbay. Neural-Symbolic Cognitive Reasoning. Cognitive
Technologies. Springer, 2008, ISBN 978-3-540-73245-7, 2008.
6. ^ Marr, D. (1982). Vision: A Computational Investigation into the Human Representation and Processing of Visual
Information. W. H. Freeman.
7. ^ Miller, G. A. (2003). The cognitive revolution: a historical perspective. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 7,
141-144.
8. ^ A number of authors consider the qualia problem to be part of the cognitive science field, e.g. Some philosophical
issues in cognitive science: qualia, intentionality, and the mind-body problem (http://portal.acm.org
/citation.cfm?id=166791.166844) , Qualia: The Hard Problem (http://chil.rice.edu/byrne/Pubs/cogsci96.pdf) , and
indeed the entire discipline of philosophy as being part of the cog sci field, e.g. What is Cognitive Science?
(http://ls.berkeley.edu/ugis/cogsci/major/about.php) , while other reputable sources that cover both qualia and cog
sci do not draw any obvious connection between them, e.g. the Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy
(http://plato.stanford.edu) (Jan 2008 online edition) does have full-size articles on both qualia
(http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qualia/) and cog sci (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/cognitive-science/) , but
qualia are not even mentioned in the cog sci article while cog sci is not mentioned in the qualia article.
9. ^ Sun, Ron (ed.) (2008). The Cambridge Handbook of Computational Psychology. Cambridge University Press,
New York.
10. ^ Pinker S., Bloom P. (1990). "Natural language and natural selection". Behavioral and Brain Sciences 13 (4):
707784. doi:10.1017/S0140525X00081061 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1017%2FS0140525X00081061) .
11. ^ Lewandowski, Gary; Strohmetz, David (2009). "Actions can speak as loud as words: Measuring behavior in
psychological science". Social and Personality Psychology Compass 3 (6): 9921002.
doi:10.1111/j.1751-9004.2009.00229 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1111%2Fj.1751-9004.2009.00229) .
12. ^ B. F. Skinner, "Can Psychology be a Science of Mind?", American Psychologist, November 1990, page 1209, At
the APA Web Site (http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/amp/45/11/1206.html) Successfully accessed 29 December 2009

Further reading
Introductory literature
Eckardt, Barbara Von (2003): Cognitive Science: Philosophical Issues. In: Lynn Nadel (Ed.):
Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science, Vol. 1, London: Nature Publishing Group, pp. 552559.
Thagard, Paul (2nd, 2005). Mind : Introduction to Cognitive Science. Cambridge, MA: The MIT
Press.
General
Bechtel, W. et al. Ed. (1999). A Companion to Cognitive Science. Blackwell Companions to

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_science

Philosophy. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers.

Gardner, Howard (1987). The Minds New Science: A History of the Cognitive Revolution. New York:
Basic Books.
Gleitman, Lila R.; Mark Liberman (Eds.) (1995). An Invitation to Cognitive Science, Vol. 1:
Language. The MIT Press. ISBN 978-0262650441.
Isac, Daniela; Charles Reiss (2008). I-language: An Introduction to Linguistics as Cognitive Science
(http://linguistics.concordia.ca/i-language/) . Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199534203.
http://linguistics.concordia.ca/i-language/.
Hutto, Daniel D. (2008). Folk Psychological Narratives: The Sociocultural Basis of Understanding
Reasons. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-08367-6.
Sun, Ron (2008). The Cambridge Handbook of Computational Psychology. Cambridge University
Press, New York. ISBN 0521857414.
Classic texts
Chomsky, Noam (1965). Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. The MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-53007-1.
Churchland, Patricia Smith (1986). Neurophilosophy: Toward a Unified Science of the Mind-Brain.
The MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-03116-5.
Dennett, Daniel C. (1981). Brainstorms: Philosophical Essays on Mind and Psychology. The MIT
Press. ISBN 978-0-262-54037-7.
Fodor, Jerry A. (1983). The Modularity of Mind. The MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-56025-2.
Gazzaniga (ed.), Michael S. (2004). The Cognitive Neurosciences III. The MIT Press.
ISBN 978-0-262-07254-0.
Glimcher, Paul W. (2003). Decision, Uncertainty, and the Brain. The MIT Press.
ISBN 978-0-262-57227-9.
Minsky, Marvin L.; Seymour A. Papert (1969). Perceptrons: An Introduction to Computational
Geometry. The MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-63111-2.
Noe, Alva (2005). Action in Perception. The MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-14088-1.
Putnam, Hilary (1988). Representation and Reality. The MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-66074-7.
Pylyshyn, Zenon (1986). Computation and Cognition: Toward a Foundation for Cognitive Science.
The MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-66058-7.
Rumelhart, David E.; James L. McClelland and the PDP Research Group (1987). Parallel
Distributed Processing: Explorations in the Microstructure of Cognition. The MIT Press.
ISBN 0-262-63112-9.
Searle, John (1992). The Rediscovery of the Mind. The MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-69154-3.
Simon, Herbert A. (1970). The Sciences of the Artificial. The MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-69191-8.
Van Orman Quine, Willard (1964). Word and Object. The MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-67001-2.
Vygotsky, Lev (1962). Thought and Language. The MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-72010-6.
Wiener, Norbert (1948). Cybernetics or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine.
The MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-73009-9.
Wilson, Robert Andrew; Keil, Frank C. (Eds.) (2001). The MIT Encyclopedia of the Cognitive
Sciences (MITECS) (http://books.google.com/?id=-wt1aZrGXLYC&printsec=frontcover) .
Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-73144-7. http://books.google.com
/?id=-wt1aZrGXLYC&printsec=frontcover.
Definitions
Cognitive Science (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/cognitive-science) entry by Paul Thagard in the
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Cognitive Science - American Assoc. for Artificial Intelligence (http://www.aaai.org/AITopics
/html/cogsci.html#simon)
aiKnow: Cognitive Artificial Intelligence (http://www.aiknow.net)

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_science

MIT CogNet (http://cognet.mit.edu/)

Miscellaneous
Baumgartner, P., et al. Eds. (1995). Speaking Minds: Interviews With Twenty Eminent Cognitive
Scientists. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Damasio, A. R. (1994). Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain. New York:
Grosset/Putnam.
Gazzaniga, M. S. Ed. (1996). Conversations in the Cognitive Neurosciences. New York: The MIT
Press.
Hunt, M. (1982). The Universe Within: A New Science Explores the Human Mind. Brighton: The
Harvester Press.
Lakoff, G and Johnson, M. (1999). Philosophy In The Flesh. New York: Basic Books.
Port, Robert F. and vanGelder, Tim (1995). Mind as Motion: Explorations in the Dynamics of
Cognition. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. ISBN 0262161508 .
Sun, Ron & L. Bookman, (eds.), Computational Architectures Integrating Neural and Symbolic
Processes. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Needham, MA. 1994.
Thelen, Esther and Smith, Linda B. (1996). A Dynamic Systems Approach to the Development of
Cognition and Action. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. ISBN 026270059X .
Tsakiridis, George. Evagrius Ponticus and Cognitive Science: A Look at Moral Evil and the Thoughts.
Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2010.
Publications & publishers
The Journal of Cognitive Science (http://www.cognitivesciencesociety.org/)
Cognitive Science Journal Archive (http://www.cogsci.rpi.edu/CSJarchive/) : Archive of the Cognitive
Science journal, plus conference proceedings and supplemental materials
Cognitive Systems Research (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/cogsys)
WIREs Cognitive Science (http://wires.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WiresJournal/wisId-WCS.html) publication addressing the topic of cognitive science from a range of multi-disciplinary perspectives,
combining the features of a review journal with an online reference work

External links
Cognitive Science Society (http://www.cognitivesciencesociety.org)
University of California San Diego, Department of Cognitive Science (http://www.cogsci.ucsd.edu)
iCogSci: An online information portal of everything Cognitive Science (http://www.cogs.indiana.edu
/iacs/)
Cognitive Science Movie Index: A broad list of movies showcasing themes in the Cognitive Sciences
(https://www.indiana.edu/~cogfilms)
Piero Scaruffi's annotated bibliography on the mind (http://www.scaruffi.com/mind.html)
List of leading thinkers in cognitive science (http://carbon.ucdenver.edu/~mryder/itc/cogsci.html)
Dr. Roy Ruddle's history page at the University of Leeds (http://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk
/ai12/history.html)
Dr. Carl Stahmer's history page at the University of Santa Barbara (http://www.carlstahmer.com
/cogsci/index.php)
Department of Cognitive Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (http://www.hum.huji.ac.il
/english/units.php?cat=3046&incat=3045)
Cognitive Science Center Amsterdam (http://www.csca.nl)
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