Readings

[Required] http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/cognitive-science/
[Required] A brief intro from Berkeley cogsci programme
Thagard, Paul (1996) Mind : Introduction to Cognitive Science Cambridge, Mass. MIT Press.
Howard Gardner The Mind's New Science: A History of the Cognitive Revolution

What is cognitive science?

Definition: Cognitive science is the science of mind and behavior. What does this imply?

Feature #1: Cognitive science studies mind and behavior

All sorts of mental states (belief, emotions), processes (reasoning, speech), phenomena (consciousness), and behavior (motion)
Both normal and abnormal (prosopagnosia, autism) cases are studied.

Feature #2: Cognitive science is a science

Theories and hypotheses in cogsci are not armchair speculations but have to be tested by experiments and observations.
Types of experiments: brain scans, psychophysics experiments, studies of cognitive deficits, reaction time, computer simulation, ...
Dominant methodology in cogsci: interdisciplinary approach, explains the mind in terms of parallel, interacting computational systems of neurons.

More on methodology

1. Cogsci is interdisciplinary

The mind is extremely complicated - around 20 billion inter-connected neurons

Vertical and horizontal division of labour is needed to understand the mind.

Horizontal division of labour: Mental phenomena involves language, perception, reasoning, emotions, etc. Different scientists focus on different areas. Vertical division of labour: Each mental phenomena can be investigated at various levels - the task level, the level of algorithm, and the level of neural mechanism.

Some of the disciplines of cogsci:

Psychology - cognitive psychology, developmental psychology
Linguistics - syntax, semantics, phonology
Neuroscience - brain structures, localization
Computer science - AI, computer models
Philosophy - theoretical foundations

2. Cogsci is materialist

Mental phenomena are explained in terms of physical processes in the brain. Most cognitive scientists are PHYSICALISTS or MATERIALISTS - everything in the world is made up of physical substance.

PHYSICALISTS would deny SUBSTANCE DUALISM - the view that the mind is a soul, some kind of non-extended and non-physical object. Substance dualism is of course a part of most religious doctrines.

We have no a priori reason to think that substance dualism must be wrong. Only experiments can help us decide which approach is better. What is true is that the physicalist approach has been more successful in improving our understanding of the mind.

3. The mind is modular

The brain is a complex system with different functional parts, e.g. visual areas, language, reasoning, ...
SPECIALIZATION not incompatible with PLASTICITY

4. Mental processes are explained in terms of parallel computations in the brain

Information processing in the mind

Perception - acquiring real-time information about the surrounding environment.
Language use - making use of information about syntax, semantics and phonology.
Reasoning - combining different sources of information, deriving new information, testing consistency of information, etc.
Action - making use of information in action planning and guidance.
Memory - storing and retrieving information

The distinctive feature of a lot of mental processes is that they involve complex information processing. But complex information processing is best explained by computations and representations. So we have reasons to believe that mental processes should be explained by computations in the brain. There are mental representations that encode information, and there are mental processes that operate on such representations.

5. Most mental processes are unconscious

We are not consciously aware of much of our mental processes.

We have lots of different beliefs at any given time, but we are not aware of all of them at the same time.
We are not aware of how we retrieve information from memory, how we recognize faces, ...

FAQ - What is the difference between cognitive science and psychology?

Brief answer

Cognitive science is more like reverse engineering the mind to discover its architecture.
So less emphasis on social aspects and applications.

Philosophy and cognitive science - Readings

[Required] van Gelder, T. J. (1999) What's philosophy got to do with it? In R. Heath, B. Hayes, A. Heathcote, & C. Hooker (eds.) Dynamical Cognitive Science: Proceedings of the Fourth Australasian Cognitive Science Conference. Newcastle, NSW: University of Newcastle.
http://philosophy.hku.hk/think/phil/whatisphil.php

Some of the roles of philosophy in cognitive science

Philosophy is an activity that relies mainly on the analysis of concepts and reasoning.

Philosophers might look at an experiment and see whether it really supports a certain conclusion, but observations and experiments generally are not part of philosophy.
Some would argue that the distinction between pure reasoning and observations is not a sharp one.

Van Gelder suggests that philosophy can perform such functions within a scientific discipline:

The Pioneer - philosophy as baby science nursery
The Building Inspector - examining the foundations of a subject
The Cartographer - mapping out the big picture
The Archivist - a collection of past wisdom and consensus
The Gadfly - stirring up trouble