Understanding Cognitive Science

This concise introduction to cognitive science provides undergraduate and graduate students with the theoretical foundations of classical and connectionist cognitive science to explain the and teach the underlying unity of the field. Understanding Cognitive Science approaches cognitive science through the tri-level hypothesis which assumes that the diverse fields of cognitive science should not be studied together, but also in constant communication with each other, rather than as a collection of otherwise only cognitively friendly disciplines. Assuming the foundational thought that cognition is information processing, the author describes different levels of analysis through the discussion of processes such as language, learning, vision and memory. The final chapters are devoted to analysing the anti-computational arguments against the traditional cognitive science orthodoxy, examining the mind as a dynamic system rather than a computer and picturing connectionism as an alternative to computationalism. The author uses these debates to define the current discipline of cognitive science and to provide an overview of the debates and controversies surrounding the field.

Michael Dawson is Professor in the Department of Psychology, University of Alberta.