Précis of The Modularity of Mind

1985 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerry A. Fodor
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Cognitive Architecture ◽  
Background Knowledge ◽  
Perceptual Integration ◽  
Faculty Psychology ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Psychological Mechanisms ◽  
New Look

AbstractThe Modularity of Mind proposes an alternative to the “New Look” or “interaetionist” view of cognitive architecture that has dominated several decades of cognitive science. Whereas interactionism stresses the continuity of perceptual and cognitive processes, modularity theory argues for their distinctness. It is argued, in particular, that the apparent plausibility of New Look theorizing derives from the failure to distinguish between the (correct) claim that perceptual processes are inferential and the (dubious) claim that they are unencapsidated, that is, that they are arbitrarily sensitive to the organism's beliefs and desires. In fact, according to modularity theory, perceptual processes are computationally isolated from much of the background knowledge to which cognitive processes have access. The postulation of autonomous, domain-specific psychological mechanisms underlying perceptual integration connects modularity theory with the tradition of faculty psychology, in particular, with the work of Franz Joseph Call. Some of these historical affinities, and some of the relations between faculty psychology and Cartesianism, are discussed in the book.

Why Granny Should Have Read French Philosophers

1998 ◽  
pp. 234-239
Author(s):  
David F. Wolf
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Functional Architecture ◽  
Faculty Psychology ◽  
Phenomenology Of Perception ◽  
Cognitive Experience

In 1983, Fodor’s Modularity of Mind popularized faculty psychology. His theory employs a trichotomous functional architecture to explain cognitive processes, which is very similar to Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of perception. Each theory postulates that perception is a mid-level procedure that operates on transduced information and that perception is independent of our cognitive experience. The two theories differ on whether perception is informationally impenetrable. This difference is essentially an empirical matter. However, I suggest that Merleau-Ponty’s allowance of cross-modal communication within perception explains our ability to identify features in noisy backgrounds better because his theory offers a more definitive ontology that matches human substantive behavior. Likewise, evidence within cognitive science suggests that Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology is a more accurate depiction of human cognitive processes.

How to Psychologically Minimize Scratching Impulses

2014 ◽  
Vol 222 (3) ◽  
pp. 140-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ariane Sölle ◽  
Theresa Bartholomäus ◽  
Margitta Worm ◽  
Regine Klinger
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Placebo Effect ◽  
Psychological Factors ◽  
Pharmacological Treatments ◽  
Physiological Basis ◽  
Psychological Mechanisms ◽  
Physical Complaints ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Placebo Model

Research in recent years, especially in the analgesic field, has intensively studied the placebo effect and its mechanisms. It has been shown that physical complaints can be efficiently reduced via learning and cognitive processes (conditioning and expectancies). However, despite evidence demonstrating a large variety of physiological similarities between pain and itch, the possible transfer of the analgesic placebo model to itch has not yet been widely discussed in research. This review therefore aims at highlighting potential transfers of placebo mechanisms to itch processes by demonstrating the therapeutic issues in pharmacological treatments for pruritus on a physiological basis and by discussing the impact of psychological mechanisms and psychological factors influencing itch sensations.

Précis ofUnified theories of cognition

1992 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 425-437 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allen Newell
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Cognitive Architecture ◽  
Convincing Evidence ◽  
Syllogistic Reasoning ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Unified Theory ◽  
Theoretical Concepts ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Unified Theories

AbstractThe book presents the case that cognitive science should turn its attention to developing theories of human cognition that cover the full range of human perceptual, cognitive, and action phenomena. Cognitive science has now produced a massive number of high-quality regularities with many microtheories that reveal important mechanisms. The need for integration is pressing and will continue to increase. Equally important, cognitive science now has the theoretical concepts and tools to support serious attempts at unified theories. The argument is made entirely by presenting an exemplar unified theory of cognition both to show what a real unified theory would be like and to provide convincing evidence that such theories are feasible. The exemplar is SOAR, a cognitive architecture, which is realized as a software system. After a detailed discussion of the architecture and its properties, with its relation to the constraints on cognition in the real world and to existing ideas in cognitive science, SOAR is used as theory for a wide range of cognitive phenomena: immediate responses (stimulus-response compatibility and the Sternberg phenomena); discrete motor skills (transcription typing); memory and learning (episodic memory and the acquisition of skill through practice); problem solving (cryptarithmetic puzzles and syllogistic reasoning); language (sentence verification and taking instructions); and development (transitions in the balance beam task). The treatments vary in depth and adequacy, but they clearly reveal a single, highly specific, operational theory that works over the entire range of human cognition, SOAR is presented as an exemplar unified theory, not as the sole candidate. Cognitive science is not ready yet for a single theory – there must be multiple attempts. But cognitive science must begin to work toward such unified theories.

Modular Representations of Cognitive Phenomena in AI, Psychology and Neuroscience

2011 ◽  
pp. 66-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna J. Bryson
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Conscious Experience ◽  
Modular Representations ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Massive Modularity ◽  
Multi Agent ◽  
Individual Domain ◽  
Behavior Based

Many architectures of mind assume some form of modularity, but what is meant by the term ‘module’? This chapter creates a framework for understanding current modularity research in three subdisciplines of cognitive science: psychology, artificial intelligence (AI), and neuroscience. This framework starts from the distinction between horizontal modules that support all expressed behaviors vs. vertical modules that support individual domain-specific capacities. The framework is used to discuss innateness, automaticity, compositionality, representations, massive modularity, behavior-based and multi-agent AI systems, and correspondence to physiological neurosystems. There is also a brief discussion of the relevance of modularity to conscious experience.

Human Cognitive Processes

2009 ◽  
pp. 1-33
Author(s):  
Slava Kalyuga
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Architecture ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Domain Specific Knowledge ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Memory Knowledge ◽  
High Level

One of the major components of our cognitive architecture, working memory, becomes overloaded if more than a few chunks of information are processed simultaneously. For example, we all experience this cognitive overload when trying to keep in memory an unfamiliar telephone number or add two four-digit numbers in the absence of a pen and paper. Similar in nature processing limitations of working memory represent a major factor influencing the effectiveness of human learning and performance, particularly in complex environments that require concurrent performance of multiple tasks. The learner prior domain-specific knowledge structures and associated levels of expertise are considered as means of reducing these limitations and guiding high-level knowledge-based cognitive activities. One of the most important results of studies in human cognition is that the available knowledge is a single most significant learner cognitive characteristic that influences learning and cognitive performance. Understanding the key role of long-term memory knowledge base in our cognition is important to the successful management of cognitive load in multimedia learning.

scholarly journals A New Look at Cardiac Defense: Attention or Emotion?

2003 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaime Vila ◽  
María Carmen Fernández ◽  
Joaquín Pegalajar ◽  
María Nieves Vera ◽  
Humbelina Robles ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Research ◽  
Cognitive Approach ◽  
Psychological Mechanisms ◽  
Health And Illness ◽  
Parametric Studies ◽  
Parasympathetic Influences ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Natural Settings ◽  
Traditional Approaches ◽  
New Look

The study of cardiac defense has a long tradition in psychological research both within the cognitive approach—linked to Pavlov, Sokolov, and Graham's work on sensory reflexes—and within the motivational one—linked to the work of Cannon and subsequent researchers on the concepts of activation and stress. These two approaches have been difficult to reconcile in the past. We summarize a series of studies on cardiac defense from a different perspective, which allows integration of the traditional approaches. This new perspective emphasizes a sequential process interpretation of the cardiac defense response. Results of descriptive and parametric studies, as well as those of studies examining the physiological and psychological mechanisms underlying the response, show a complex response pattern with both accelerative and decelerative components, with both sympathetic and parasympathetic influences, and with both attentional and emotional significance. The implications of this new look at cardiac defense are discussed in relation to defensive reactions in natural settings, the brain mechanisms controlling such reactions, and their effects on health and illness.

scholarly journals Role of Logic in Cognitive Science

Studia Humana ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-30
Author(s):  
Paweł Balcerak
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Propositional Logic ◽  
Nervous Activity ◽  
Human Cognition

Abstract In their work McCulloch and Pitts describe an idea of representing all of nervous activity in terms of propositional logic. This idea was quickly challenged. One of reasons for this challenge was rising believe that logic is unable to describe most of human cognitive processes. In this paper we will analyse premises of original McCulloch and Pitts proposition. Following that, we will ask about ability of symbolic (logical) systems to represent human cognition. We will finish by analysing relation between symbolic and subsymbolic computing, in hope of bridging the gap between the two.

scholarly journals Is cognition computational or dynamical?

2015 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 5-20
Author(s):  
Miljana Milojevic
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Scientific Models ◽  
Philosophical Debate ◽  
Dynamical Approach ◽  
The Relationship

The rise of the dynamical approach in cognitive science set in motion a philosophical debate about the nature of cognition, that is, the debate about whether cognitive processes are dynamical or computational. In this article we are dealing with the question about the relationship between computationalism and dynamicism, and their possible ontological implications. More precisely, we are dealing with the already offered answers to this question and evaluate them in accordance with specific understandings of scientific models in cognitive science.

scholarly journals Cognitive Networks: Interactivity, Intersubjectivity, and Synergy

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-78
Author(s):  
Helena Knyazeva
Keyword(s):  
Complex Systems ◽  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Network Science ◽  
Cognitive Maps ◽  
Cognitive Networks ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Network Structures ◽  
Cognitive Coherence ◽  
Cognitive Niches

Some properties of cognitive networks are discussed in the article in the context of the modern achievements of the network science. It is the study in network structures and their surprising properties that gives a new impetus to the development of the theory of complex systems (synergetics). The analysis of cognitive processes from the point of view of the network structures that arise in them not only fits with such concepts already existing in cognitive science and epistemology, as cognitive niches, cognitive maps, cognitive coherence, etc.), but also brings some new aspects to the understanding of interactivity, intersubjectivity, synergy in cognition and creative activities, empathy.

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