Cognitive Science is the study of the human mind and how it functions. Closely related to Cognitive Psychology, it is an interdisciplinary study drawing from Psychology, Artificial Intelligence, Human Intelligence, Neuroscience, Linguistics, Philosophy, Education and Anthropology.

In the 1950s, early AI researchers (John McCarthy, Marvin Minsky, Allen Newell, Herbert Simon) were pioneering computational models of intelligence, and seeking an understanding of mind for use in constructing intelligent systems which could mimic human cognitive abilities. In parallel, attempts to understand and model complex human functions such as language (Noam Chomsky) and memory (George Miller) seemed to beg for a theory of mind and mental processing which behaviourism could not provide, as it restricted psychology to the investigation of purely observable phenomena like physical stimuli and behavioural responses. Cognitive Science emerged, combining insights from the field of Artificial Intelligence with disciplines dealing directly with the subject matter of mental phenomena, to focus on the goal of understanding the mind itself.

Key questions for Cognitive Science are understanding the nature of mental representations and processes; discovering how human thought is related to brain neurology; and determining the appropriate role of computational models such as symbolic processing, formal logics, rule-based systems and neural networks in cognitive theories. Computational models designed to model human thought provide feedback between theories of mind and techniques in Artificial Intelligence and Computation.

Cognitive Science has delivered an extensive range of theories about how the mind works: Mental Representation theories encompass Images, Concepts, Rules, Logical Propositions and Analogies, whilst theories of Mental Processing include cognitive procedures such as Matching, Search, Retrieval and Deduction.

Positioned at the nexus of many of the most profound philosophical questions involving Mind and Body, Knowledge, Meaning and Truth, Cognitive Science is a robust scientific discipline as well as a theoretical one. A strong empirical basis is provided through experimentation on human subjects to study their cognitive processes under controlled conditions. These empirical studies give insights as to the ways people form and apply concepts, think with mental images and analogies, and perform various kinds of reasoning. Furthermore, Cognitive Science seeks not only to investigate and understand the mind, but also to provide a basis for constructing applications which may aim to mimic, as Intelligent Agents do, or to support and complement, as the envisioned Semantic Web does.

Reference Book

Thagard, P (2005) Mind: Introduction to Cognitive Science (2nd Ed.), Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Recommended Text Book

Harré, R (2002) Cognitive Science: A Philosophical Introduction. London: Sage Publications Ltd

Web Links

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Cognitive Science entry
Cognitive Science Society

Summary Written By

Anne Cregan
University of NSW Artificial Intelligence Group
NICTA Knowledge Representation and Reasoning Program
April 2006

(Incorporating material from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Cognitive Science entry)

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