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The Fields That Compose Cognitive ScienceCGSC 1001Mysteries of the MindbyJim Daviesjim@jimdavies.org

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Image: By ESO/Yuri Beletsky (ybialets at eso.org) (http://www.eso.org/public/images/potw1036a/) [CC-BY-3.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

In mid-August 2010 ESO Photo Ambassador Yuri Beletsky snapped this photo at ESOs Paranal Observatory. A group of astronomers were observing the centre of the Milky Way using the laser guide star facility at Yepun, one of the four Unit Telescopes of the Very Large Telescope (VLT).Yepuns laser beam crosses the southern sky and creates an artificial star at an altitude of 90 km high in the Earth's mesosphere. The Laser Guide Star (LGS) is part of the VLTs adaptive optics system and is used as a reference to correct the blurring effect of the atmosphere on images. The colour of the laser is precisely tuned to energise a layer of sodium atoms found in one of the upper layers of the atmosphere one can recognise the familiar colour of sodium street lamps in the colour of the laser. This layer of sodium atoms is thought to be a leftover from meteorites entering the Earths atmosphere. When excited by the light from the laser, the atoms start glowing, forming a small bright spot that can be used as an artificial reference star for the adaptive optics. Using this technique, astronomers can obtain sharper observations. For example, when looking towards the centre of our Milky Way, researchers can better monitor the galactic core, where a central supermassive black hole, surrounded by closely orbiting stars, is swallowing gas and dust.

Taken with a wide angle lens, this photo covers about 180 of the sky.1Streaming VideoI put a link on the cuLearn page, which streams theater B:http://livestream.cuol.ca/thbWith this you can watch the lectures in real time streamed. Class is Tuesdays and Thursdays 8:35-9:55pm. So if youre sick or in the T section and want to participate in the polls or see it sooner, this is a way you can do it. Currently only desktop (flash) is supported.2Historically Core Fields:PsychologyPhilosophyComputer science Linguistics Contemporary Core Field:Neuroscience (esp. cognitive neuroscience)Secondary Fields:EducationAnthropology3Im going to mention critiques of all of these fields, but that does not mean that I endorse these critiques! I am only repeating critiques I have heard.Nobody but me seems to think that we should include behavioural economics.3PsychologyCharacterized by:Subject matter: natural minds, mostly human. Broadly interested in cognitive functioning, even when it is erroneous.Methods: laboratory experimentation, statistical analysis, computer cognitive modeling4Psychology: SubfieldsCognitive PsychologyBroad field of basic research in human internal mental processesHuman factors/Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)How people psychologically interact with artifacts (human-designed things), such as user interfacesEvolutionary PsychologyHow our evolutionary history has made our minds what they arePsycholinguisticsStudying language with experimentsComparative PsychologyAnimal cognition, sometimes comparing it to human5Psychology: CritiquesNot enough model buildingYou cant play 20 questions with nature and winDustbowl empiricismNot enough theory, there are no theoretical psychologistsMethodologically limitedCognitive science is possible because psychology wont innovate to embrace the methods of the other fields. They underestimate the complexity of language6PhilosophyCharacterized by:Subject Matter: usually big questions, what our concepts mean, otherwise quite broadMethods: Thinking and writing.Thought experimentsConceptual analysisArgumentationTheorizing from evidence from other fields and commonsense observations

7Philosophy: SubfieldsPhilosophy of MindCan machines be conscious?Functionalism vs. identity theoryQualiaWhich animals feel pain?Philosophy of ScienceHow should science be practiced?How is science practiced?Philosophy of psychology (the science)What mental categories are scientifically legitimate?Philosophy of LanguageHow do words connect to meanings?How can a word refer to something that does not exist?

8Philosophy: CritiquesThey dont pay enough attention to empirical studyThey sometimes think that the existence of a word implies the existence of its intended referentThey are concerned with too many unimportant problems9Computer ScienceCharacterized by:Subject Matter: How mental processes can work on machines, and how computers can effectively interact with humansMethods: building and testing computer programs10Computer Science: SubfieldsArtificial IntelligenceBuilding mental processes with computer programs. To understand and create mental systemsHuman-Computer InteractionTo design computer interfaces that humans can effectively use.11Artificial Intelligence: CritiquesInsufficiently concerned with natural intelligenceAI researchers usually dont care if their programs work the same way that people or animals doEven those doing psychological AI dont know enough about empirical findings, or dont try to build in the mistakes people makeThey are overly optimistic about the future of AI12LinguisticsCharacterized by:Subject Matter: human spoken or signed natural language NOT computer or animal languagesNOT (for the most part) written languageMethods: sound analysis, grammar creation, corpus analysisMost Cognitive Science subfields are defined by their methods, but linguistics is strongly characterized by both its subject matter and methods.13A corpus is a body of text.

Use its when its possessive (e.g., Every dog has its day.)Use its when you mean it is or it has (e.g., Its a beautiful day.)13Linguistics: SubfieldsPhonologyHow sounds are organized and used in languageMorphologyHow sound and meaning interact in wordsSyntaxHow sentences may be put together in a languageSemanticsMeaning in languagePragmaticsHow sentences interact with context to change meaning (e.g., how are you? or do you have the time?14Linguistics: CritiquesThey build models of language and then dont know what to do with them.They are not familiar with, nor do they try to interact with, other findings about the mind. They only concern themselves with one part of cognition.15NeuroscienceCognitive Neuroscience is characterized bySubject matter: how the brain processes information and creates cognitive processes. The biological functions of mental phenomena.Methods: neuroimaging, single-cell recording, anatomical observation, computer modeling, pharmaceutical effects, genetic analysis, etc.Overlaps with biological and physiological psychology, neuropsychology, and the rest of neuroscience16Neuroscience: CritiquesUnderestimate the complexity of language and other thought processes.Completely unable to shed light on many of the processes everyone else is interested in. They tend to be dismissive of other approaches or reductionistLean too far toward nature on the nature/nurture debate.17EducationCharacterized by:Subject matter: how people (usually children) learn, and how we can design education to help them effectively do it.Methods: Naturalistic observation of case studies, empirical studies18Critiques of EducationCase studies are worthless or close to it.Its too applied and not telling us enough about basic cognitive processes.The controlled studies are poorly done.To their credit, theyre very expensive and hard.They only deal with one part of cognition.

19Cognitive AnthropologyCharacterized by:Subject matter: Social organization, human culture, enculturation, cultural change and transmission, shared knowledge, distributed cognition, situated cognitionMethods: Field work, ethnographic observation and interviewing. Emphasis on qualitative study.Anthropology includes things like archeology. Cultural anthropology includes cognitive.20Qualitative means non-numerical. Quantitative means using numbers. Think quantity.20Anthropology: CritiquesTend to lean too far on the nurture side of the nature/nurture debate.Research is too qualitative.Research is too expensive.Research does not generalize enough to be useful.They are splitters rather than lumpers.21Lumpers try to put everything in few categories, and emphasize similarities across different systems.Splitters delight in finding unique and rare exceptions to generalizations.21So What Is Cognitive Science?Subject matter: Study of minds and thinking, especially at the information processing level.Methodological Definition: Applies methodologies from multiple disciplines to multiple problems from those disciplines.22What is a Cognitive Scientist?A cognitive scientist is any scholarly practitioner studying minds from one of the associated sub-fields. According to this definition, a philosopher working on philosophy of mind problems would be considered a cognitive scientist even if she never read about work in other fields, published in other fields, or contextualized her findings with the theories and problems in other fields.A cognitive scientist is any scholarly practitioner studying minds from one of the associated sub-fields who has a working knowledge of some of the other subfields and actively contextualizes her work with the theories and problems of some of the other subfields. She is active in the cognitive science community.Same as the definition above, except that she actively collaborates with scholars in other disciplines that use different methods. For example, an artificial intelligence researcher who works with a neuroscientist to make computer models of networks that execute some cognitive task.A cognitive scientist is any scholarly practitioner studying minds who uses methodologies from multiple associated subfields. For example, if a linguist runs experiments on human participants in addition to her traditional linguistic analysis. She also is a member of the community and contexualizes her findings.

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