Cognitive science: past, present, future. Cognitive science is a young science with a bright future

, cognitive psychology, neurophysiology, cognitive linguistics, nonverbal communication and artificial intelligence theory.

Cognitive science uses two standard computational approaches to modeling cognitive systems: symbolism (classical approach) and connectionism (more recent approach). Symbolism is based on the assumption that human thinking is similar to the thinking of a computer with a central processing unit, which sequentially processes units of symbolic information. Connectionism is based on the assumption that human thinking cannot be likened to a central digital processor due to incompatibility with neurobiological data, but can be imitated using artificial neural networks, which consist of “formal” neurons that perform parallel processing.

Classical cognitive science ignored the problem of the connection between consciousness and the brain, as well as the problem of the connection between psychology and neurobiology. This caused criticism against her. In the 1980s, psychologists and neuroscientists began to interact more closely, which led to the emergence of a new science - cognitive neuroscience, which uses brain imaging methods that make it possible to empirically link mental phenomena with brain physiology. While classical cognitive science did not take consciousness into account, consciousness is a subject of study in modern cognitive neuroscience.

The key technological advances that made cognitive science possible were new methods of brain scanning. Tomography and other methods made it possible for the first time to obtain direct data on the functioning of the brain. Increasingly powerful computers also played an important role.

Progress in cognitive science, as scientists believe, will make it possible to “unravel the riddle of the mind,” that is, to describe and explain the processes in the human brain responsible for higher nervous activity. This will make it possible to create systems of so-called strong artificial intelligence, which will have the ability for independent learning, creativity, and free communication with humans.

Cognitive science combines computer models drawn from artificial intelligence theory and experimental methods drawn from psychology and the physiology of higher nervous activity to develop precise theories of the workings of the human brain.

Emergence

Cognitive science arose as a response to behaviorism, in an attempt to find a new approach to understanding human consciousness. In addition to psychology itself, the origins turned out to be several scientific disciplines: artificial intelligence (John McCarthy), linguistics (Noam Chomsky), and philosophy (Jerry A. Fodor). At the peak of the development of cybernetics and the emergence of the first computers, the idea of the analogy of the human mind and a computer began to gain strength and largely laid down the main theories of cognitivism. The thinking process has been compared to the operation of a computer, which receives stimuli from the outside world and generates information that is observable. In addition to symbols, as the results of contact of the mind with the outside world, mental images (or ideas) became the object of research. Thus, there was a division into “outside” (objects, objects, ...) and “inside” (representations). When asked whether the world exists, cognitive science answers: “It is unknown, but our ideas about this world exist.” On the other hand, cognitivism also brought back Cartesian skepticism and left subjective experiences and emotions unattended.

Embodied Cognitive Science

At the beginning of the 21st century, a new direction developed in cognitive science - embodied cognitive science. Its representatives consider the approach of traditional cognitive science and philosophy of consciousness, which almost completely ignores the role of the body in the activity of consciousness, to be erroneous. The last decade has seen an increase in empirical research in the field of embodied cognition. Proponents of embodied cognitive science reject the idea that consciousness is generated by or identical with the brain.

Components of cognitive science

Notes

Literature

Langakker R. U. Cognitive grammar. - M.: INION RAS, 1992. - 56 p.
Lakoff J. Cognitive modeling. Language and intelligence. - M.: “Progress”, 1996. - 416 p.
A brief dictionary of cognitive terms. / Under general ed. E. S. Kubryakova. - M.: Philol. Faculty of Moscow State University named after. M. V. Lomonosova, 1997. - 245 p.
Velichkovsky B. M. Cognitive science: foundations of cognitive psychology. In 2 vols. - M.: Meaning: Publishing Center "Academy", 2006.
Cognitive science and intellectual technologies: Ref. Sat. Academy of Sciences of the USSR. - M.: Institute of Science. information by society Sciences, 1991. - 228 p.
Dennett D. Ontological problem of consciousness / Transl. from English A. L. Blinova // Analytical philosophy: Formation and development (anthology) / Comp. Gryaznov A.F. - M.: DIC "Progress-Tradition", 1998. - P. 361-375.
Churchland, P. S. (1986) Neurophilosophy: Towards a Unified Theory of the Mind Brain, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Bradford Books/MIT Press
Fodor, Jerry (1998). Concepts: Where Cognitive Science Went Wrong. New York: Oxford University Press
Jackendoff, R. (1987) Consciousness and the Computational Mind, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Bradford Books/MIT Press
Pinker, S. (1997). How the Mind Works. presented at the New York, New York: W. W. Norton & Company
Varela, F., Thompson, E. and E. Rosch (1991) The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press

Science, including cognitive science, has been faced with an important question for many years: how to learn better, absorb more information and apply the acquired knowledge? The results achieved are very satisfactory, but not outstanding. There has not yet been a revolutionary breakthrough in this area. Harvard scholar Daniel Willingham wrote a book called “Why Don’t Students Like School?”, which is entirely devoted to the principles of teaching from a perspective.

Willingham states that these principles are:

Have strong scientific support: “these principles are based on a lot of information, not just a couple of studies.”
Independent of field of study: “these are facts about how the human brain works, so it doesn’t matter whether you study Spanish or math.”
They offer solutions that are not obvious: “given the novelty of these principles, new methods of teaching and learning are needed.”
There are omissions if they are not applied: “there is a big gap between using the principles and not using them. These are not just theories, they can be applied here and now.”

It should be said that some of these principles are quite controversial. However, they have a place to be at least in order to discuss them.

Factual knowledge precedes skills

Willingham believes that Einstein was wrong: knowledge is more important than imagination, because it is the clay from which any idea and fantasy can be molded. There are studies that show the importance of knowledge - it affects how we learn. Without this wealth of information, most of Einstein's insights would have been impossible.

Thorough research shows that a solid base of knowledge has a positive effect on the speed of learning, allowing you to understand and remember more. It’s hard to argue with this, because many outstanding people devoured tons of books. The only question is whether their cognitive abilities developed along with this.

Willingham says you can't teach a man How think correctly without a certain amount of What think.

Memory is the remainder of thoughts

You remember what you think about. Despite the first principle, just a lot of information will not be enough. Besides allocation keywords and phrases does not work because you are not concentrating on the depth of meaning, but instead only notice the highlighted words.

There is a technique by Richard Fineman, which indicates that a person, while reading or studying, should take small pauses and quickly summarize the material covered. This approach encourages paying attention to the underlying meaning, which is exactly what a person needs to learn.

The same problem with analogies and . If they are designed to demonstrate superficial meaning without going into detail, then they also have little meaning.

We absorb knowledge in the context of what we already know

Abstract subjects such as mathematics, physics, finance or law seem to be the most difficult to study. The reason is that we learn things in the context of what we already know, and abstract things are difficult to visualize.

Sometimes a person thinks that he understands something when in fact he does not. Without understanding the essence of an abstract thing, this cannot be stated. Smart students are well aware of their weaknesses, so they build scaffolding (graphs, diagrams) in order to get to the bottom of things.

Professionalism takes practice

The only way to become an expert at something is to practice. But surprisingly, some basic skills require more effort than complex ones.

It is important, even as a professional, to practice the simplest things from time to time.

Cognition is fundamentally different at the beginning and at the end of learning

Should you study science, make hypotheses, conduct experiments like real scientists? Willingham says no.

Knowing about creating something and knowing about acquiring knowledge are completely different things. For most disciplines, understanding scientific facts is more important than the scientific process itself. Scientific facts are closer to our everyday life.

People learn in almost the same way

Willingham argues that learning styles are stupid. That there are no visual, auditory or kinetic learners. He also says that this is true of other learning theories as well.

If you give two people (auditory and visual) the same information, expressed in audio and visual form, the results will show that they remembered and absorbed the same amount of information.

This is a very controversial principle, so treat it with caution. Surely you yourself know that it is easier for you personally to assimilate information in a certain way.

Intelligence can be increased through hard, continuous work.

Intelligence depends partly on genes and partly on experience and hard work. Willingham argues that a person can become smarter if he continually improves his skills. Perhaps this is the only principle that fully corresponds to modern ideas about intelligence.

We wish you good luck!

, cognitive psychology, neurophysiology, cognitive linguistics, nonverbal communication and artificial intelligence theory.

Emergence [ | ]

Embodied Cognitive Science[ | ]

Components of cognitive science[ | ]

Cognitive sciences also include experimental cognitive psychology, neuroscience,

relatively new field of science, having a highly specialized focus.

Unites specialists of various profiles. Currently, it is actively developing and accumulating knowledge.

What is the human cognitive sphere? Find out about this from ours.

Concept and brief history

What is cognitive science?

Cognitive science in the broad sense of the word means set of scientific disciplines and research, studying intelligence and how knowledge is stored, acquired, changed, and used.

A narrow definition was given by Michael Eysenck. According to Eysenck, cognitive science is the interdisciplinary study of the application and acquisition of knowledge.

There is another definition, according to which cognitive science is interdisciplinary complex of scientific directions who study cognition and higher forms of mental activity and thought processes.

Unites in itself research results in the following sciences:

psychology;
philosophy;
anthropology;
theory of knowledge;
neurophysiology;
theory of artificial intelligence.

Cognitive science arose as a result of contrasting the theory of behaviorism proposed by the American psychologist John Watson.

Watson stated that only behavior should be studied from a scientific point of view; consciousness cannot be the subject of interest of science.

Since the beginning of the 1950s, Watson's theory has lost its title as the only correct one.

John Miller suggested that pieces of information are encoded and deciphered in the deep reaches of the mind.

Later scientists John McCarthy, Herbert Simon and others found a field of science called artificial intelligence.

The term cognitive science was first used Christopher Longuet-Higgins in 1973.

Famous cognitive scientists

There are a number of people in the world who have devoted themselves to the study of cognitive science, and they are rightfully recognized as experts in this field.

Classic methods at its core

Cognitive science is based on two classical methods.

The first method is called symbolism. The main idea of the method is the similarity between human mental activity and computer thinking. The computer has a central processor in which all incoming information is processed. Man has a similar structure.

The second method is called connectionism. Completely contradicts the first method.

Human thinking cannot be compared with the thinking of a computer processor, so neurobiological data on brain activity refute this statement.

Artificial neural networks can stimulate human thinking.

Cognitive disorders you will find on our website.

Application of knowledge in practice

Knowledge of Cognitive Science widely used in practice.

Cognitive psychologists can help people with brain problems or dysfunctions. An individual treatment program is developed, as a result of which the person’s natural processes in the brain are restored.

Cognitive science makes it possible to create the right methodology for children to learn languages or other subjects that require the active functioning of parts of the brain.

Website developers can take advantage of the accumulated knowledge of cognitive science. When placing an advertisement, it is important for the site owner that the advertising post is immediately noticed by a person, and he would be interested in the proposed option.

For this purpose, it is necessary to understand what kind of organization human attention and perception has, and to study eye movements.

Cognitive science knows the answers to these questions and this helps website owners advertise to your advantage.

TV advertising customers work on the same principle.

Ideally you can prevent the development of diseases, if scientists understand the mechanism of how to send signals to the brain so that it does what the body requires for normal functioning.

Methods of modern cognitive science

Cognitive science is an interdisciplinary science, so research methods from psychology, neurobiology, artificial intelligence theory and others are used.

The brain imaging group includes optical display. Infrared transmitters and receivers are used. Safe technology allows you to study the brain not only in adults, but also in infants.

Computational modeling. A mathematical formulation of the problem is required. Allows us to understand the functional organization of a cognitive phenomenon.
From less popular Methods include dynamic systems theory, neuro-symbolic integration and Bayesian models, direct brain stimulation methods, and post-mortem studies.

Cognitive science is a young science with a bright future. Scientists are doing everything possible to application of accumulated knowledge in practice, and ordinary people watch with interest the rapid development of cognitive sciences and acquire new knowledge about cognition and thinking processes.

What is cognitive dissonance? find out right now.

Lecture by M. V. Falikman “Modern cognitive science: inside and outside the cranium”:

The term "cognitive" is a sign of two new, rapidly developing areas in psychology and the science of intelligence, known as cognitive psychology and cognitive science. Cognitive psychology(psychology of cognitive processes) likens the brain to a computer, studies the processing of information by humans and considers cognition as “a set of information processing processes.” Cognitive science(science of intelligence) is a broader concept that is a fusion of cognitive psychology, psychophysics, artificial intelligence research, neurobiology, linguistics, mathematical logic, neuroscience and philosophy. One of the goals of these disciplines is to identify the hidden reserves of human brain, increase the productivity of intellectual work.

Over the past two decades, neurobiological and psychological research has provided new and extremely important insights into the functioning of the brain. They open the way to revolutionary transformations of intellectual work, creating the preconditions for a radical increase in its knowledge-generating creative productivity. In fact, we are on the threshold of a strategic reform of intellectual labor, promising the inclusion of new powerful reserves of the human brain and intellect in creative work.

The most important areas of research in cognitive science have been vision, thinking and reasoning, memory, attention, learning and language.

Early theories of cognitive function attempted to explain the apparent compositionality of human thought (thoughts are formed from simpler units connected in a specific way) as well as its productivity (the process of composing thoughts from simpler units can be repeated indefinitely and produce an infinite number of new thoughts), allowing for the existence of discrete mental representations that can be connected or disconnected according to rules depending on the syntactic, or structural, properties of the representations.

This "language of thought" hypothesis was later challenged by an approach called connectionism, parallel distribution process or neural network modeling. According to this approach, cognitive processes (such as pattern recognition) consist of adjusting the activation forces of units that are networked and act like neurons.

Today, a significant number of philosophers are engaged in problems directly related to cognitive science, participating in much-needed constructive work on its foundations. Yes, important tasks philosophy of consciousness- understand and evaluate the foundation of psychology and cognitive science, and now it is the main contender for explaining the phenomenon of human thought.

This section contains materials on cognitive science, as well as philosophy of mind.

Does consciousness exist to make itself unnecessary?

This cannot be ignored in discussions about the nature of free conscious choice. John Bargh, in his work - Beyond the Will: On the Question of Unconscious Control of Social Behavior (in English) - based on an analysis of evidence from several different areas of scientific knowledge, concludes that consciousness is the thing that gives us sensation deliberate control - exists precisely to make automatic, “unwilled” behavior possible.

Bargh talks about those cases when human behavior “controlled” by external stimuli, and not by his own conscious intentions, by an act of will. At the same time, the person does not know about the true reasons for his behavior. This is possible, Bargh argues, not despite conscious control, but due to him.

Indeed, perhaps the purpose of consciousness (what it evolved for) is the assembly of complex unconscious skills. Together with the general plasticity of brain development, a person has the opportunity to create complex programs for automatic control [of one’s own behavior], well suited to the individual environment, needs and goals of a person. As William James (1890) proved, consciousness disappears from those processes where it is no longer required, switching to others in which it is still... But it is amazing: it turns out that one of the main goals of conscious processing [of information] may be to neutralize the need for oneself, automating skills as much as possible. This might seem absurd if the modern understanding of the relationship between unconscious and conscious thought processes excluded the development of consciousness towards the creation of increasingly complex unconscious processes.

Bypassing the Will: Towards Demystifying the Nonconscious Control of Social Behavior by John Bargh (2004), in The New Unconscious; ed. R. Hassin, J. Uleman, & J. Bargh. Oxford University Press..

Translation: Zhitelev R. A.