Cognitive Science: An Introduction

Cognitive Science: An Introduction

This book is intended to be an introductory undergraduate text for the field of cognitive science, the interdiscipline that endeavors to understand cognition at a computational level from a variety of methodological viewpoints.

THIS BOOK IS A WORK IN PROGRESS AND IS STILL INCOMPLETE

About This Book

Approach
Study Questions
Style Guide

What Cognitive Science Is

What is Science?
A Brief History
Cognitive Science Defined
Other Cognitive Levels of Explanation

Approaches to Cognitive Science

Computational theory of mind
Situated Cognition
Embodied cognition

Methods

Artificial Intelligence Methods
Psychology Methods
Statistics
Philosophy Methods
Linguistics Methods
Neuroscience Methods
Anthropology Methods
Serious Games and Crowdsourcing Methods

The Architecture of the Mind

What is an Architecture?
Modularity vs. General Purpose Functioning
Emotion
Non-Emotion Feelings
Metaphor and Analogy
Cognitive Architectures Implemented As Software
Brain Architecture and Processing

The Evolution of Intelligence

What is evolution?
Kinds of Intelligences
Methodology: How Can We Understand the Evolution of Intelligence?
A Brief History of Human Evolution
Explanations For How Humans Got So Smart
Evolutionary Psychology

Perception

Perception's Role in Cognition
Vision
Audition
Haptics
Olfaction
Gustation
Vestibular Systems
Proprioception
Interoception
Senses In Non-human Animals and Robots
What the Senses Have in Common
Synesthesia


Specific Mental Processes

What Consciousness Is
Psychology of Time
Psychology of Pain
Philosophical Issues of Pain
Dreaming
Control of the Body
Gut brain

Memory, Representation, and Learning

Memory Introduction
Human Memory
Computer and Software Memory
Memory In Distributed Cognitive Systems
Kinds of Learning
Learning At Different Levels of Analysis

Reasoning and Inference

The General Function of Reasoning
Categorization
Creativity, Planning, and Imagination
Biases and Reasoning Heuristics
Moral Thinking

Language and Communication

Kinds of Language
Non-Human Communication
Human Language
Logic
The Language of Thought and Intra-brain Communication

Development Over the Lifespan

Brain Development
The Nature-Nurture Debate
Psychology of Play
Acting to Learn
Cognitive Training in Adults

Cognitive Science and The Real World

How Cognitive Science Can Help You Get Through School
Myths about Cognition
Cognitive Science in the Media
Practical Applications of Cognitive Science