Introduction to Cognitive Science
Obligatory course
30h lectures (EN)
15h classes (PL)
Piotr Konderak, PhD
[email protected]
Room 205, Collegium Humanicum
Office hours: Fri, 9:00-10:00; 11:00-12:30
Info & requirements
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Presence at lectures - obligatory
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Assignments during lectures (with extra points)
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Written exam
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http://konderak.eu/ics16.html
Aims of the course:
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To present key terms and theories in Cognitive Science
To show interconnections between them
(interdisciplinarity)
What is Cognitive Science?
Our (human) world is an illusion...
Our (human) world – as we perceive it – is an
illusion
Nervous system (retina)
Mind
...and even Culture
Unreliable cognition?
What if everything is an illusion and nothing exists? In that case,
I definitely overpaid for my carpet.
(Woody Allen)
Our brain is not truth-preserving device...
it is a product of evolution
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Its task is to keep us alive
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My brain? That's my second favourite organ. And the most overrated
organ.
(Woody Allen)
What is Cognitive Science?
CS emerged as an institutionalized field of study in
the mid 70s
1977: Journal Cognitive Science founded
1978: Sloan Foundation Report
1979: first meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, La
Jolla, CA
What is Cognition?
Broad construal:
Cognition is what cognitive agents do (or are
capable to do):
attention, memory, learning, reasoning, problem
solving and aspects of motivation theory, action
theory, perception, language processing
However, what are shmuls? Shmuls are: brown
tables, green small plastic objects and furry animals
with tails...
What is Cognition?
Narrow construal:
All the members of the list seem to share one
property:
they involve the mental manipulation of mental
representations of some sort or other, in
consequence:
Cognition (def.) is mental manipulation (creation,
transformation and deletion) of mental
representations.
What is representation?
The onion looks like a cheek.
What is representation?
What is representation?
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It is realized by a representation bearer
It has content (it is „about” something, is
intentional)
Relations of representation are somehow
grounded
It can be interpreted by some interpreter
Mental representation: hypothesized internal (i.e.
mental) entity that refers to (is about, represents)
other (external, internal) entity
What is mental manipulation?
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We distinguish representations thanks to their shapes
We can: create new representations, transform them
and delete them
The above operations are based on shapes of
representations
Now, think about computers.
Could they manipulate
representations?
What is Cognitive Science?
Broad construal:
The scientific study of cognition:
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The domain of investigation (i.e. cognition)
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Procedures for investigating the domain (methods)
The critical aspect of Cognitive Science is the search for
understanding of cognition, be it real or abstract, human or
machine. The goal is to understand the principles of intelligent,
cognitive behavior. The hope is that this will lead to better
understanding of human mind, of teaching and learning, of mental
abilities, and of the development of intelligent devices that can
augment human abilities. (Norman 1981, my emphasis)
Cognitive disciplines
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Cognitive psychology - gives us detailed theories of
various cognitive capacities
Cognitive neuroscience - analyses of parts of the nervous
system subserving cognitive capacities
Computer science (AI) - gives an idea how a complicated
psychological capacity can be realized in a physical
system
Linguistics – discipline dedicated to analyzing input and
output of a cognitive system that process language;
Chomsky: cognitive structures such as grammatical structures
and processes;
Cognitive disciplines
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Cognitive semiotics: integrates methods and theories of
cognitive science and semiotics with the ultimate aim of
providing new insights into the realm of meaning and its
manifestation in cultural practices
Anthropology – investigates cognitive phenomena from a
cross-cultural perspective
Philosophy – answers asks the perennial and fundamental
questions concerning the mind and its place in a world such as:
the mind-body problem, problem of personal indentity, of
consciousness, mental representation, mentality etc.
On the hexagon
Finally, cognitive science can be understood as the scientific study of
cognition as carried out in accordance with the methodologies of
the above disciplines
Assignment 2: read the excerpts of the Sloan Foundation Report:
State of Art in Cognitive Science (link and pages:
http://konderak.eu/ics15.html
On the hexagon
The problem with interdisciplinarity
Why..., ask the people in Artificial Intelligence, do you waste your time
conferring with neuroscientists? They wave their hands about
„information processing” and worry where it happens, and which
neurotransmitters are involved, and all those boring facts, but they
haven't a clue about the computational requirements of higher
cognitive functions. Why, ask the neuroscientists, do you waste you
time on fantasies of AI? They just invent whatever machinery they want,
and say unpardonably ignorant things about the brain. The cognitive
psychologists, meanwhile, are accused of concocting models with
neither biological plausibility nor proven computational powers; the
anthropologists wouldn't know a model if they saw one, and
philosophers, as we all know, just take each other's laundry, warning
about confusions they themselves have created, in an arena bereft of
both data and empirically testable theories. (Dennett 1995)
On names...
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60's: Computer simulation
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1961: Cognitive Studies (Bruner, Miller)
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1973 Cognitive Sciences
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Finally: Cognitive Science
In reaching back for the word „cognition” I don't think anyone was
intentionally excluding „volition”, „motivation” or „emotion”. I
think they were just reaching back for common sense. In using the
word „cognition” we were setting ourselves off from behaviorism.
We wanted something that was mental – but mental psychology
seemed terribly redundant. (Miller 1986)
To sum up...
Cognition is mental manipulation (creation,
transformation and deletion) of mental
representations.
Working definition of Cognitive Science:
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The domain of CS is cognition;
The methodologies of CS are the methodologies
of the participating disciplines
Central assumption: mental states and processes
are computational (?)
FAQ
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The problem of consciousness: are there correlations
between brain and conscious states? Why and how?
Are dogs and rats (snails, flies, plants, machines,
newborn babies) conscious?
Do we need a brain to be intelligent? Is a brain needed
to see? What's the difference between retina cells and
the visual brain cells?
Given that Homo sapiens evolved from lower animals,
what does this tell us about our mental powers?
FAQ
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Must an artificial system resemble a real brain if it is
even to seem to support a mind?
What mental powers does a human brain provide, and
how does it manage to do so?
Are our abilities inborn or determined by experience?
How does the brain get its anatomical structure: from
genetics or from the environment (perhaps from selforganization)?
Do we all share psychological properties that mould
every human culture?
FAQs & answers
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In mental illnesses, what's gone wrong: something in
the brain or something in the mind?
Is it possible that only living entities can have a mind? If
so, why?
Finally all that puzzles about language...
Answers:
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Artificial Intelligence (computers)
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Control theory (self-regulating systems)
Answers
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Above concepts sharpen psychological questions
Implemented in computer models can test the
coherence and implications of a theory
Elicit gaps in a theory and sometimes suggest how to
fill them
Margaret A. Boden: Mind as Machine
Creator's knowledge: if you can build it, you can
understand it.