This is a tough challenge! It is also a big change from the pre-computer era, when speculations about mental processes were hard to prove or disprove. The challenge to a theorist is clear: "If you think you have a good theory about how a cognitive process works, use it to design a computer program that accomplishes the task." Any helpful insights are welcomed, whether they come from artificial intelligence, cognitive psychology, neuroscience, or some other approach.Ĭomputer simulations (imitations of natural processes on a computer) provide a rigorous way to test a cognitive theory. They care about particular issues such as face recognition or auditory perception. Most cognitive science researchers today are problem oriented. Computer makers are learning from brain physiology, too, experimenting with techniques for modeling electronic circuits after brain circuits (so-called neuromorphic circuits). You will notice in this chapter frequent references to brain scans and other forms of biological evidence. Research in cognitive neuroscience occurs at the overlap between cognitive science and neuroscience. Today, cognitive science researchers could be working in a department of linguistics, computer science, education, or psychology (among others). The term cognitive science came into use, as a way of covering all research aimed at understanding cognition, much the way neuroscience is used to cover all research related to the nervous system. What was the classic distinction between the AI and cognitive approaches?īy the mid-1970s the two groups realized they could benefit by learning from each other. Computer techniques were not necessarily relevant. This approach, typically headquartered in a psychology department, tried to explain how humans performed acts of cognition. If humans did things differently, AI researchers did not care.Ĭontrasting with AI was the approach of cognitive psychology. The concern of an AI researcher was creating a program that worked (acted with intelligence). Artificial intelligence (AI) researchers, typically headquartered in computer science departments, tried to make computers act intelligent without regard to how humans did it. (3) Computers provided a new way of testing theories through simulations: imitations of mental processes in computer programs.Īt the dawn of the computer age, in the 1950s and early 1960s, researchers identified two different ways to studying cognitive processes using computers. (2) Computers provided a tool for doing research, for example, by displaying stimuli, collecting responses, and analyzing data. (1) Computers provided a new perspective by portraying intelligence as information processing. That word covers knowledge, awareness, and mental processes in general.Ĭomputers influenced cognitive psychologists in at least three ways. Next page Visual Scene Analysis: The Emergence of Cognitive ScienceĪs we saw in previous chapters, computers helped stimulate the modern interest in cognition.
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