What can psychology, linguistics, the doctrine of artificial intelligence and the theory of knowledge have in common? All of the above are successfully combined by cognitive science. This interdisciplinary direction is engaged in the study of cognitive and mental processes occurring in the brain of humans and animals.
History of Cognitive Science
The still well-known great philosophers Plato and Aristotle were interested in the nature of human consciousness. Many works and assumptions from the time of Ancient Greece were put forward on this topic. In the 17th century, the French mathematician, philosopher and physicist René Descartes somewhat popularized the concept of this science, saying that the body and mind of living beings are independent objects.
The author of the concept of "cognitive science" in 1973 was Christopher Longuet-Higgins, who studied artificial intelligence. A few years later, the journal Cognitive Science was created. After this event, cognitive science became an independent direction.
Consider the names of the mostfamous researchers in this field:
- John Searle created a thought experiment called "Chinese Room".
- Physiologist James McClelland, who studies the brain.
- Stephen Pinker is a specialist in experimental psychology.
- George Lakoff is a researcher of linguistics.
Modern cognitive science
Scientists are trying to prove in practice the connection between brain physiology and mental phenomena using visualization. If in past centuries human consciousness was not taken into account, today its study is included in the main tasks of cognitive science.
The development of this doctrine as a whole depends on technological progress. For example, tomography, the invention of which significantly influenced the further continuation of the existence and development of cognitive science. Scanning made it possible to see the brain from the inside, therefore, to study the processes of its functioning. Scientists say that over time, technological progress will help humanity to unlock the secrets of our mind. For example, the interaction between the brain and the central nervous system.
Subject, tasks and research methods of cognitive science
Everything about the human mind before the 20th century was just speculation, because at that time it was impossible to test theories in practice. Views on the work of the brain are formed on the basis of borrowed information about artificial intelligence, psychological experiments and the physiology of the higher central nervous system.
Symbolism andconnectionism - classical methods of computation that model cognitive systems. The first method is based on the idea of the similarity of human thinking with a computer that has a central processor and processes data streams. Connectionism completely contradicts symbolism, explaining this by the inconsistency of neurobiological data on brain activity. Human thinking can be stimulated by artificial neural networks that process data simultaneously.
Cognitive science as an umbrella term was considered by E. S. Kubryakova in 2004, since the teaching includes a number of interacting disciplines:
- Philosophy of mind.
- Experimental and cognitive psychology.
- Artificial intelligence.
- Cognitive linguistics, ethology and anthropology.
- Neurophysiology, neurology and neurobiology.
- Material cognitive science.
- Neurolinguistics and psycholinguistics.
Philosophy of mind as one of the components of cognitive science
The subject of this discipline is the features of consciousness and its relationship with physical reality (the mental properties of the mind). American modern philosopher Richard Rorty called this teaching the only useful one in philosophy.
There are a lot of problems that arise from trying to answer the question of what consciousness is. One of the most important topics that cognitive science studies through this discipline is the human will. Materialists believe that consciousness is part ofphysical reality, and the world around us is completely subject to the laws of physics. Thus, it can be argued that human behavior is subject to science. Therefore, we are not free.
Other philosophers, including I. Kant, are convinced that reality cannot be completely subject to physics. Proponents of this view consider true freedom to be the result of doing the duty required by reason.
Cognitive psychology
This discipline studies human cognitive processes. The psychological foundations of cognitive science contain information about memory, feelings, attention, imagination, logical thinking, and decision-making abilities. The results of modern research on information transformation are based on the similarity of computing devices and cognitive human processes. The most common concept is that the psyche is like a device with the ability to convert signals. Internal cognitive schemes and the activity of the organism during cognition play a major role in this teaching. These two systems have the ability to input, store and output information.
Cognitive ethology
Discipline studies the rational activity and mind of animals. Speaking of ethology, it is impossible not to mention Charles Darwin. The English naturalist argued not only about the presence of emotions, intelligence, the ability to imitate and learn in animals, but also about reasoning. The founder of ethology in 1973 wasNobel laureate in physiology Konrad Lorenz. The scientist discovered in animals an amazing ability at that time to transfer information to each other, obtained in the learning process.
Stephen Wise, a professor at Harvard University, in his characteristically titled Break the Cage, agreed that there is only one creature on planet Earth that can make music, build rockets, and solve math problems. We are talking, of course, about a reasonable person. But not only people know how to be offended, to yearn, to think, and so on. That is, “our smaller brothers” have communication skills, morality, norms of behavior and aesthetic feelings. Ukrainian academician of neurosciences O. Krishtal noted that today behaviorism has been overcome, and animals are no longer considered as "living robots".
Cognitive graphics
Learning combines the techniques and methods of colorful presentation of the problem in order to get a hint about its settlement or solution in its entirety. Cognitive science applies these methods to artificial intelligence systems that can turn a textual description of tasks into a figurative representation.
D. A. Pospelov formed three primary tasks of computer graphics:
- formation of knowledge models that could represent objects that characterize logical and figurative thinking;
- visualization of information that cannot yet be described in words;
- search for ways to move from figurative pictures to the formulation of processes,hidden behind their dynamics.
