A Companion to Cognitive Science
This page includes an expanded set of biographies
of major cognitive scientists and
names and addresses of contributors to the Companion
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David A. Balota, Paul G. Chapin, Michael J. Friedlander, & Janet L.
Kolodner, Advisory Editors
Basil Blackwell, 1998
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Description and Objectives
Part 1. The Life of Cognitive Science
Part II. Areas of Study
Part III. Methodologies
of Cognitive Science
Part IV. Stances
Part V. Controversies
Part VI: Cognitive
Science in the Real World
Appendix:
Biographies of Major Cognitive Scientists
Description and Objectives
The most dramatic conceptual event of late twentieth century psychological
science has been the creation of multi-disciplinary cognitive science.
The expression 'cognitive science' names a broadly integrated class of
approaches to the study of mental activities and processes, broad not just
in the sense of including disciplines as varied as philosophy, cognitive
psychology, linguistics, computer science, anthropology, and neuroscience,
but in the sense that cognitive scientists tend to adopt certain basic,
general assumptions about mind and intelligent thought and behavior. These
include assumptions that the mind is (1) an information processing system,
(2) a representational device, and (3) [in some sense] a computer. Various
relations are possible among each of these assumptions; further, they are
not shared by all who dub themselves cognitive scientists. Partly because
of such relations and failures of uniformity, cognitive science has generated
vigorous dialogues concerning the nature of mental activities and processes
as well as over the nature of science and the structure of disciplines.
The Blackwell Companion to Cognitive Science will present everything
needed to acquire working familiarity with cognitive science, its central
research fields and methodologies, main achievements, intellectual stances
and controversies, and likely future developments. The Companion
represents an important innovation in the learning space of cognitive science;
no book of exactly this type has been published before. It should serve
as a reference book, classroom text, and resource guide. It will be readable
by non-specialists such as graduate or undergraduate students taking first
courses in cognitive science, and also specialists who already are in disciplines
which are part of cognitive science but who wish an overview of topics
which rest outside their own specialty. It will contain select bibliographies
of other sources in the field. It will be written and organized as a book,
not as an encyclopedia or dictionary.
While cognitive science has existed as a multi-disciplinary research
endeavor for a couple of decades, its character has not been static and
is indeed undergoing fundamental changes at present. This volume will attempt
not only to characterize the past and present endeavors of cognitive science,
but also to focus on future problems for inquiry in cognitive science and
new approaches to conceptualizing cognitive phenomena, including perspectives
from neuroscience and from social and ecological studies. Moreover, this
volume will include entrees that examine not just the central inquiries
of cognitive science but also explore the real world applications of work
that has been done in cognitive science.
Part I. Introduction
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The Life of Cognitive Science: William Bechtel (PNP Program, Department
of Philosophy, Campus Box 1073, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130-4899),
Adele
A. Abrahamsen (Linguistics Studies Program, Department of Psychology,Washington
University, St. Louis, MO 63130-4899), and George Graham (Department
of Philosophy, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294-1260)
This essay will describe the origins of contemporary cognitive science,
describe the different disciplines that have contributed to cognitive science
and their contributions, explain why and how cognitive science is transforming
the understanding of mind and behavior, describe the institutional structures
that have developed to facilitate cognitive science research, and attempt
to provide a clear, readable orientation to the issues of the Companion.
Part II. Areas of Study
A number of different phenomena comprise cognition, and these have provided
areas of study for investigators within cognitive science. It is largely
as a result of their focus on these common phenomena that practitioners
of cognitive science coming from different disciplines and using different
research approaches have interacted with each other. The entries in this
section will attempt to characterize the problems that emerge in these
areas of study and some of the outstanding discoveries that have been made
in these areas.
It should be possible for the reader to skip back and forth between
later parts of the volume (see below) and entries on various areas of study
so as, for example, to relate work on learning to a specific stance such
as connectionism that is adopted by some practitioners of cognitive science
or to positions taken concerning a particular controversy such as that
over what is innate. The entries on particular areas of study offer grounding
in actual research accomplishments in cognitive science that will be useful
in taking up more theoretical matters or attempts to relate work in cognitive
science to more real world human endeavors.
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Analogy: Dedre Gentner, Department of Psychology, Northwestern University,
Evanston, IL 60208-2710
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Animal Cognition: Herbert L. Roitblat, Department of Psychology,
University of Hawaii, 2430 Campus Road, Honolulu, HI 96822
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Attention: Alex H. C. van der Heijden, Department of Psychology,
Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
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Brain Mapping: Jennifer Mundale, Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology
Program, Campus Box 1073, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130
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Cognitive Anthropology: Charles Nuckolls, Department of Anthropology,
Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322
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Cognitive and Linguistic Development: Adele A. Abrahamsen, Department
of Psychology, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130
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Conceptual Change: Nancy Nersessian, 1526 Iverson Street, NE, Atlanta,
GA 30307 (Georgia Institute of Technology
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Conceptual Organization: Doug Medin and Sandra R. Waxman, Department
of Psychology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208-2710
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Consciousness: Owen Flanagan, Department of Philosophy, Duke University,
Durham, NC
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Decision Making: Frank Yates and Paul A. Estin, Department
of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48104
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Emotions: Paul Griffiths, Department of Philosophy, Otago University,
New Zealand
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Imagery and Spatial Representation: Rita Anderson, Department of
Psychology, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. Johns, NFLD A1B 3X9,
CANADA
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Language Evolution and Neuromechanisms: Terrence Deacon, Department
of Anthropology, Boston University, Boston, MA
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Language Processing: Kathryn Bock & Susan Garnsey, Department
of Psychology, 314 Psychology Building, 603 E. Daniel, Champaign, IL 61820
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Linguistic Theory: Terry Langendoen, Department of Linguistics,
University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
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Machine Learning: Paul Thagard, Departments of Philosophy and Computer
Science, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ONT, Canada
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Memory: Henry L. Roediger and Lyn M. Goff, Department of Psychology,
Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130
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Perception: Cees van Leeuwen, Faculty of Psychology, University
of Amsterdam, Roeterstraat 15, 1018 WB Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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Perception: Color: Austen Clark, Department of Philosophy University
of Connecticut, U54 103 Manchester Hall Storrs, CT 062692054
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Problem Solving: Kevin Dunbar, Department of Psychology, McGill
University, 1205 Docteur Penfield Avenue, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H3A
1B181
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Reasoning: Lance Rips, Department of Psychology, Northwestern University,
Evanston, IL 60208-2710
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Social Cognition: Alan J. Lambert and Alison L. Chasteen, Department
of Psychology, Campus Box 1125, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130
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Unconscious Intelligence: Arthur Reber & Rhianon Allen, Department
of Psychology, Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, NY 11210
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Understanding Texts: Arthur Graesser, Department of Psychology,
University of Memphis, Memphis, TN 38152
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Word Meaning: Barbara Malt, Department of Psychology, Lehigh University,
Bethlehem, PA 18015
Part III. Methodologies of Cognitive Science
One of the reasons that cognitive science is such a dynamic research area
is that researchers have brought a broad range of research methodologies
to bear on phenomena of common interest. Typically these research methodologies
have been developed primarily in one cognitive science discipline but they
have then been borrowed and often modified by those in other disciplines.
Thus, there is not a tight connection between a specific research methodology
and a given discipline, and the entries in this part will indicate the
range of application of these methodologies within cognitive science.
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Artificial Intelligence: Rob Sun, Department of Computer Science,
University of Alabama
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Behavioral Experimentation: Keith Rayner, Department of Psychology,
University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003
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Cognitive Ethology: Marc Bekoff, Department of Ecology, Campus Box
334, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309
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Deficits and Pathologies: Christopher Frith, MRC Cyclotron Unit,
Hammersmith Hospital, Ducane Road, London, W12 0HS, United Kingdom
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Ethnomethodology: Barry Saferstein, Department of Sociology, University
of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92095
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Functional Analysis: Brian MacWhinney, Department of Psychology,
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213
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Neuroimaging: Randy L. Buckner and Steve Petersen, Department of
Neurology, Washington University, Campus Box 8111, St. Louis, MO 63130
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Protocol Analysis: K. Anders Ericsson, Department of Psychology,
Florida State University, Tallahasee, FL 32306-1051
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Single Electron Electrophysiology: Barry Stein, Mark T. Wallace, and
Terry Stanford, Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, Wake Forest
University, Winston-Salem, NC
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Structural Analysis: Robert Frank, Department of Linguistics, University
of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716
Part IV. Stances
One of the aspects of cognitive science that adds to its vitality is the
fact that different cognitive science researchers have adopted different
stances on cognitive phenomena that have shaped their inquiries by directing
them to particular questions and conceptions of what count as answers to
these questions. As with methodologies, frequently a stance has emerged
first in one of the participant disciplines and then migrated to influence
researchers in other contributing disciplines. While there is frequently
dialogue between practitioners who adopt different stances, the differences
between the stances do not commonly lend themselves to empirical inquiry
and the discussions between practitioners adopting different stances constitute
ongoing debates. Frequently those who adopt one stance are led to investigate
particular problems that can be answered within the perspective of that
stance while those who adopt a different stance will be directed to other
problems. The entries in this section will characterize the different stances
and the way practitioners of each go about the practice of cognitive science.
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Case-based Reasoning: David Leake, Department of Computer Science,
Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47408
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Cognitive Linguistics: Michael Tomasello, Department of Psychology,
Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322
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Connectionism, Artificial Life, and Dynamical Systems: Jeffrey Elman,
Department of Cognitive Science, University of California at San Diego,
La Jolla, CA 92095
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Embodied, Situated, and Distributed Cognition: Andy Clark, Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology
Program, Department of Philosophy, Washington University, St. Louis, MO
63130
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Neurobiological Modeling: P. Read Montague, Jr., Division of Neuroscience,
Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030 and Peter Dayan, Department
of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT
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Mediated Action: James Wertsch, Department of Education, Washington
University, St. Louis, MO 63130
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Production Systems: Chris Schunn & David Klahr, Department of
Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
Part V: Controversies
In addition to broad theoretical stances, cognitive science inquiry is
characterized by a number of controversies that reach across the various
fields of study. These controversies concern particular features of the
cognitive system or ways of examining it. In contrast to the stances discussed
in part four, these controversies are the object of empirical investigation.
The evidence to date has not resolved these controversies, but has regularly
forced changes in the different positions that have been taken on these
controversies.
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Binding Problem: Valerie G. Hardcastle Department of Philosophy,
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 240610126
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Heuristics and Satisficing: Robert C. Richardson, Department of
Philosophy, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45220
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Innate Knowledge: Barbara Landau, Department of Psychology, University
of Delaware
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Innateness and Emergence: Elizabeth Bates et al., Department of
Psychology, University of California, San Diego, LaJolla, CA
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Intentionality: Gilbert Harman, Philosophy Department, Princeton
University, Princeton, NJ 08544-1006
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Levels and Cognitive Architectures: Robert N. McCauley, Department
of Philosophy, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322
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Modularity: Irene Appelbaum, Department of Philosophy, University
of Montana, Missoula, MT
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Representations: Dorrit Billman, Department of Psychology, Georgia
Institute of Psychology, Atlanta, GA
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Representation and Computation: Robert Stufflebeam, Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology
Program, Campus Box 1073, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130
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Rules: Terence E. Horgan and John Tienson, Department of Philosophy,
University of Memphis, Memphis, TN 38152
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Stages of Processing: Donald G. MacKay, Department of Psychology,
UCLA, 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024
Part VI: Cognitive Science in the Real World
While many practitioners of cognitive science have construed their work
as part of basic science, some cognitive scientists have anticipated that
the results of their investigations may have consequences for other aspects
of human life. Increasingly, cognitive scientists have devoted themselves
more explicitly to relating their inquiries to these other areas. This
focus on real world problems has, in turn, transformed some of the inquiries
in cognitive science. The entries in this part will discuss both current
endeavors relating cognitive science to other human pursuits and potential
for further developments in these directions.
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Education: John Bruer, McDonnell Foundation, 1034 S. Brentwood Blvd.,
St. Louis, MO 63117
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Ethics: Mark Johnson, Department of Philosophy, University of Oregon,
Eugene, OR 97403
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Everyday Life Environments: Alex Kirlik, Center for Human-Machine
Systems Research, School of Industrial & Systems Engineering, Georgia
Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332-0205
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Institutions and Economics: Douglass North, Henry R. Luce Professor
of Law and Liberty, Department of Economics, Washington University, St.
Louis, MO 63130
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Law: Edwina L. Rissland, Department of Computer Science, University
of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003
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Mental Retardation: Norman Bray et al., Sparks Center, Division
of Psychology, P.O.B. 313, University Station, University of Alabama at
Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294
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Science: William Brewer, Department of Psychology, University of
Illinois, 603 East Daniel Street, Champaign, IL 61820