OriginsoftheCognitiveRevolution.pptVIP

Origins of the Cognitive Revolution October 7, 1998 The Cognitive revolution in Linguistics Psychology Computer science Philosophy Anthropology, sociology... Cognitive metatheory (Baars) What are we talking about (when we talk about cognitive science)? Cognitive metatheory: (Baars) …a belief that psychology studies behavior in order to infer unobservable explanatory constructs, such as memory, attention, and meaning. (144). The cognitive revolution took place in many places at the same time, and involved a number of areas, including memory, language, imagery, and attention. (147)…a metatheory that encourages one to infer unobservable theoretical constructs from empirical observations. (158). Howard Gardner a contemporary, empirically based effort to answer long-standing epistemological questions -- particularly those concerned with the nature of knowledge, its components, its sources, its development, and its deployment.(6) Gardners list of key components of cognitive science: 1. Mathematics and computation: by the 1950s, scientists were comfortable with the idea of an algorithm that could be specified in very general terms, and which could in principle be computed automatically. Mathematical proofs were themselves now something that could be studied mathematically (David Hilbert, Kurt G?del); mathematical truth could be viewed as formal consistency. Gardners List: 2. The neuronal model McCulloch and Pitts showed that anything that can be exhaustively and unambiguosuly described ...is...realizable by a suitable finite neural network. (von Neumann). Claude Shannons MA thesis: similar property of relay circuits. Thus: binary circuits can embody logical statements. Gardners themes: 3: The Cybernetic Synthesis The core idea: the nervous system operates in a continuous relationship of feedback with the environment, modifying its activity in order to best satisfy achievement of the current goal-state (a future, not-yet-achieved state). Gardners Themes: 4. Informati