Chapter Thirteen
Conclusion: Where We Go From
Here
The benefits of cognitive science
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Brings together diverse theoretical
perspectives.
Widespread influence of cognitive theory on
other disciplines and in education.
Practical applications in medicine,
engineering, and robotics.
Advances in diagnosis and treatment of
disease and disorders.
Working together on working
memory
Cross-disciplinary integration can help us to better
understand the relationship between a given mental
Process such as working memory and other mental processes.
Working together on working
memory
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Philosophy. Asks critical questions about the
process.
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Restricted to visual & spatial representations?
How are numbers represented?
Do these representations have meaning?
Is there a single central executive?
Working together on working
memory
•
Psychology (non-cognitive). Application of
different theoretical lenses to the process.
• Does wm create Gestalts during problem
solving?
Working together on working
memory
•
Cognitive. Formulation of informationprocessing models of the process.
• Experimentally test process models.
• How do models of different cognitive processes
constrain each other?
Working together on working
memory
•
Neuroscience. Anatomy and physiology of
process.
• Do connections between psychological models
correspond to neural connectivity between brain
regions that implement them?
Working together on working
memory
•
Networks. Create ANNs to simulate the process
and/or semantic networks to study how knowledge
is represented in the process.
• Implement ANN that rehearses verbal information.
• Implement ANN that rotates mental images.
Working together on working
memory
•
Evolution. Focus on the problem the process is
designed to solve and how it originated.
Implement evolutionary algorithms.
• What adaptive roles are served by different wm
functions?
Working together on working
memory
•
Linguistics. What is the role of language in the
process? How does the process interface with
language?
• What is the role of wm in language comprehension and
production?
Working together on working
memory
•
Artificial Intelligence. Design and run computer
algorithms that will perform the process.
• How is wm used to search for a target among the items
of a list?
• Explain human weakness in retrieving long lists. (List
the 50 states of the US.)
Working together on working
memory
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Robotics. Design and test robots that will
implement the process and use it in a realworld environment.
• How is wm used as interface between
perception and action?
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Plot a path through a cluttered room.
Issues in cognitive science
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Lack of a unified theory.
The nature of mental representation and
computation still debated.
Classic information processing vs.
connectionism.
Cognitive science and the real
world

Cognitive science has a hard time accounting for
processes that must interact with the complexity of
the physical world. This is just one of the issues it
must confront.
Issues in cognitive science
Emotions. There is no adequate account of
emotions or of how they interact with cognition.
• Consciousness. A fundamental mystery. No
agreement on what it is or how to understand it.
• Physical environments. Most cognitive science is
done in simple controlled scenarios instead of
complex real-word situations.
• Social environments. Most cognitive processes
are individualized instead of in social or ecological
environments.
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Issues in cognitive science
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Individual and cultural differences. Greater
consideration and study of these needed.
Evaluating cognitive science
theories
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Five considerations (Thagard, 2000):
Representational power.
Computational power.
Psychological plausibility.
Neurological plausibility.
Practical applicability.
Integration in cognitive science
1.
2.
3.
Integration across levels of description.
The need for theories and models that
specify the implementation, algorithmic,
and computational levels.
Integration across disciplines. Need for
collaborative interdisciplinary work.
Integration across methodology. Need for
synergistic use of multiple methods.