Cognitive science

Cognitive Science is the scientific study of the mind and brain and how they give rise to behavior. The field is highly interdisciplinary and is closely related to several other areas, including psychology (especially cognitive psychology), artificial intelligence, linguistics and psycholinguistics, philosophy (especially philosophy of mind), neuroscience, logic, robotics, anthropology and biology (including biomechanics).

Areas of Research

Cognitive science is a large field, and it contains many sub-fields. However, it should be recognized that cognitive science is not equally concerned with every topic which 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 on the basis of key philosophical conflicts. Some within the cognitive science community, however, consider these to be vital topics, and advocate the importance of investigating them.

Related Topics:
Animal cognition - Comparative - Evolutionary

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Some of the prominent areas of research in cognitive science include:

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Perception and action

Main article: Perception

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Perception is the ability to take in information via the senses, and process it in some way. Vision and hearing are two dominiant 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?

Related Topics:
Senses - Vision - Hearing

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Language processing

Main articles: Language, Linguistics, Psycholinguistics

Related Topics:
Language - Linguistics - Psycholinguistics

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The ability to learn and understand language is an extremely complex process. Language is acquired within the first few years of life, and almost all humans under normal circumstances are able to acquire language proficiently. Some of the driving research questions in studying how the brain 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?

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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 speech is indeed governed by rules, they appear to be opaque to any conscious consideration.

Related Topics:
Linguistics - Linguist

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Memory

Main articles: Memory

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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 of time (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).

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Memory is also often grouped into declarative and procedural forms. Declarative memory refers to our memory for facts and specific knowledge (e.g. Who was the first president of the U.S.?). Procedural memory allows us to remember actions and motor sequences (e.g. how to ride a bicycle).

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Learning and development

Main articles: Learning, Developmental psychology

Related Topics:
Learning - Developmental psychology

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Learning and development are the processes by which we acquire information over time. Infants are born with little or no knowledge, 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.

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Artificial intelligence

Main article: Artificial intelligence

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Strong AI versus Weak AI

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Turing test.

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Symbolic vs Connectionist approaches 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. 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 seem to make up the human brain.

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