Introduction to Introduction
to Cognitive Science
Ben Weissman
COGS 2120
What is Cognitive Science?
• “Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary study of mind and intelligence, embracing philosophy,
psychology, artificial intelligence, neuroscience, linguistics, and anthropology.” (Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
• “Cognitive science is most simply defined as the scientific study either of mind or of intelligence.
It is an interdisciplinary study drawing from relevant fields including psychology, philosophy,
neuroscience, linguistics, anthropology, computer science, biology, and physics.” (Wikipedia)
• “An interdisciplinary science that draws on many fields (as psychology, artificial intelligence,
linguistics, and philosophy) in developing theories about human perception, thinking, and
learning.” (Merriam-Webster)
• “Cognitive science can be roughly summed up as the scientific interdisciplinary study of the mind.
… It results from the efforts of researchers working in … philosophy, psychology, linguistics,
artificial intelligence, robotics, and neuroscience.” (Friedenberg & Silverman)
What is Cognitive Science?
• “Cognitive science” coined in 1973
• The study of mind dates back to (at least) Ancient Greek philosophy
• Modern Cognitive Science has its roots in the 1950s
• New technologies and methodologies are advancing our ability to
study the mind
• Interdisciplinary in nature, collaborative rather than unified
• Is this an issue?
What is Cognitive Science?
• The cognitive hexagon
• Philosophy, Psychology,
Linguistics, Anthropology,
Neuroscience, Computer Science
(Artificial Intelligence)
• Diversity of topics, focus on
connections
• A nice approach, but outdated
Minds of different kinds
• The human mind
• An animal mind
• A computer
• A robot mind
Not a simple pursuit
• Think about… anything you’ve ever done or experienced or thought…
• The mind cannot be easily observed, measured, manipulated
• What even is the mind…?
• Human brain is incredibly complex
• Somewhere between 10,000,000,000 to 100,000,000,000 neurons… each of
which has up to 10,000 connections to other neurons
Applications of Cognitive Science
• Cognitive Science can be used to analyze, describe, predict, correct,
augment, maybe even create minds. Some specific applications are:
• Cognitive Modeling
• Human Computer Interaction
• Education
• Cognitive Systems / Artificial Intelligence
• Cognitive Robotics
• Cognitive Engineering
Why Cognitive Science is difficult
• Minds are really complex
• Cognitive Science is really broad:
• Many disciplines and perspectives
• Many kinds of minds
• Even within human minds, many differences
• Cognitive phenomena span many orders of magnitude in terms of time
• Some cognitive phenomena (e.g. object recognition) happen in milliseconds
• Some take seconds (e.g. reasoning, decision-making)
• Some take days, even years (e.g. learning, expertise, development)
• Finally, what exactly is a mind?
The disciplines
Philosophy
• Built on reasoning
• Does not (have to) utilize the scientific method
• What is the mind?
• A metaphysical question
• Can computers have true minds?
• What is consciousness?
• How should we think about cognitive science?
• Functionalism, Computationalism, Situated Cognition at the beginning
• Connectionism, Bayesianism at the end
Psychology
• Built on the scientific method
• Scientific approach to what the mind is/does – study of behavior
• What is the mind?
• Again, but from a different perspective
• Concerned with externally observable events
Cognitive Psychology
• Applying scientific method and principles to examine and model
specific processes
• How do we map these externally observable events onto internal
processes?
• Topics include perception, attention, memory, imagery, problem
solving, etc.
Neuroscience
• The study of the physical brain
• What are the interactions between biology and cognition?
• What hardware is involved in cognitive processes?
Cognition throughout the lifespan
• In traditional cognitive psychology, experiments are conducted on
neurotypical adults
• How do we develop cognition as children?
• What happens to our cognitive processes as we age?
Emotion
• What role does emotion play in our general cognition?
• How does emotion interface with other cognitive processes (e.g.,
memory, attention)
• Are emotions uniquely human?
Evolution of Cognition
• Where does our uniquely human cognition come from?
• What kinds of cognitive processes are observable in non-human
animals?
• What is the evolutionary role of cognition?
Social Cognition
• How does social information interact with cognitive processes?
• What are the manifestations of cognition within society?
• How can cognitive science help us better understand and combat
social issues?
Linguistics
• What is special about human language?
• What can studying language reveal about human cognition as a whole?
• How do we process language?
• Can computers develop human-like language capabilities?
Artificial Intelligence
• (How) can we achieve machine implementation of human cognition?
• What can studying AI tell us about our own human cognition?
• How can studying cognitive science lead to better human-computer
interaction?
• What is intelligence?
Robotics & Ethics of Cognitive Science
• What is an “intelligent agent?”
• What exactly are machines capable of?
Overall Themes
• What’s the best way to think about a mind?
• Is it based on physical characteristics? System behaviors? Functions?
• What’s the best way to think about representations?
• For AI/humans/animals/all?
• Are representations symbolic? Based on networks? Based on patterns of
probability? Based on a ton of interrelated parts?
• How can we put it all together?
• What can we learn by studying Cognitive Science as opposed to each thing
separately?