Nature's subtlety undermines the empirical relevance of both dynamical and computational hypotheses

1998 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 646-647
Author(s):  
Gregory R. Mulhauser
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Science Research ◽  
The Way

Technical hitches mar van Gelder's proposed map of the conceptual landscape, particularly with respect to descriptive levels and the trio of instantiation, realisation, and implementation. However, for all the formal quibbles, van Gelder is onto something important; the tension he notes between computationalism and a dynamical alternative threatens to transform the way we conduct cognitive science research.

Minds, Machines, and Giving a Damn

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Chodat
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Science ◽  
West Coast ◽  
Human Action ◽  
Walker Percy ◽  
Christian Life ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Partial Success ◽  
The Way

The 1960s saw the triumph of cognitive science over behaviorism. This chapter examines three literary–philosophical objections to this shift: “West Coast” phenomenology, Richard Powers’s Galatea 2.2, and the writings of Walker Percy, the first of the postwar sages featured in this book. For “West Coast” philosophers, cognitive science ignores the way human action is structured by what we “give a damn” about—a sense of significance that orients our actions. Powers’s novel goes a step further: no more than machines do we know what to give a damn about. Percy’s essays and fiction challenge both these positions, asking us to see analogies between the significance we find in language and the significance we find in living a Christian life. Establishing such an analogy is the goal of Percy’s 1971 Love in the Ruins, which seeks to embody—with only partial success—what terms such as “faith” and “community” might mean.

Conceptualizing change in organizational cognition

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rasmus Gahrn-Andersen
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Distributed Cognition ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Organizational Cognition ◽  
Organizational Settings ◽  
Macro Domain ◽  
Task Specification ◽  
Domain Dynamics

PurposeSecchi and Cowley (2016, 2018) propose a Radical approach to Organizational Cognition (ROC) as a way of studying cognitive processes in organizations. What distinguishes ROC from the established research on Organizational Cognition is that it remains faithful to radical, anti-representationalist principles of contemporary cognitive science. However, it is imperative for proponents of ROC to legitimize their approach by considering how it differs from the established research approach of Distributed Cognition (DCog). DCog is a potential contender to ROC in that it not only counters classical approaches to cognition but also provides valuable insights into cognition in organizational settings.Design/methodology/approachThe paper adopts a conceptual/theoretical approach that expands Secchi and Cowley's introduction of ROC.FindingsThe paper shows that DCog research presupposes a task-specification requirement, which entails that cognitive tasks are well-defined. Consequently, DCog research neglects cases of organizational becoming where tasks cannot be clearly demarcated for the or are well-known to the organization. This is the case with the introduction of novel tasks or technical devices. Moreover, the paper elaborates on ROC's 3M model by linking it with insights from the literature on organizational change. Thus, it explores how organizing can be explored as an emergent phenomenon that involves micro, meso and macro domain dynamics, which are shaped by synoptic and performative changes.Originality/valueThe present paper explores new grounds for ROC by not only expanding on its core model but also showing its potential for informing organizational theory and radical cognitive science research.

scholarly journals How Efficiency Shapes Human Language, TICS 2019

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Gibson ◽  
Richard Futrell ◽  
Steven T. Piantadosi ◽  
Isabelle Dautriche ◽  
Kyle Mahowald ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Information Theory ◽  
Cognitive Psychology ◽  
Natural Language ◽  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Human Language ◽  
Language Research ◽  
The Way

Cognitive science applies diverse tools and perspectives to study human language. Recently, an exciting body of work has examined linguistic phenomena through the lens of efficiency in usage: what otherwise puzzling features of language find explanation in formal accounts of how language might be optimized for communication and learning? Here, we review studies that deploy formal tools from probability and information theory to understand how and why language works the way that it does, focusing on phenomena ranging from the lexicon through syntax. These studies show how apervasive pressure for efficiency guides the forms of natural language and indicate that a rich future for language research lies in connecting linguistics to cognitive psychology and mathematical theories of communication and inference.

scholarly journals A call to arms: time to do cognitive science in Latin America

2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fernando Marmolejo-Ramos
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Cognitive Psychology ◽  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Chi Square ◽  
World Region ◽  
The World ◽  
Social Organizational ◽  
Research Domains

Previous theoretical reviews about the development of Psychology in Latin America suggest that Latin American psychology has a promising future. This paper empirically checks whether that status remains justified. In so doing, the frequency of programs/research domains in three salient psychological areas is assessed in Latin America and in two other regions of the world. A chi-square statistic is used to analyse the collected data. Programs/research domains and regions of the world are the independent variables and frequency of programs/research domains per world region is the dependent variable. Results suggest that whereas in Latin America the work on Social/Organizational Psychology is moving within expected parameters, there is a rather strong focus on Clinical/Psychoanalytical Psychology. Results also show that Experimental/Cognitive Psychology is much underestimated. In Asia, however, the focus on all areas of psychology seems to be distributed within expected parameters, whereas Europe outperforms regarding Experimental/Cognitive Psychology research. Potential reasons that contribute to Latin Americas situation are discussed and specific solutions are proposed. It is concluded that the scope of Experimental/Cognitive Psychology in Latin America should be broadened into a Cognitive Science research program.

scholarly journals Movement Variability and the Use of Nonlinear Tools: Principles to Guide Physical Therapist Practice

2009 ◽  
Vol 89 (3) ◽  
pp. 267-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Regina T Harbourne ◽  
Nicholas Stergiou
Keyword(s):  
Complex Systems ◽  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Physical Therapist ◽  
Biological Systems ◽  
Movement Variability ◽  
Functional Movement ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
New Directions ◽  
The Way

Fields studying movement generation, including robotics, psychology, cognitive science, and neuroscience, utilize concepts and tools related to the pervasiveness of variability in biological systems. The concepts of variability and complexity and the nonlinear tools used to measure these concepts open new vistas for physical therapist practice and research in movement dysfunction of all types. Because mounting evidence supports the necessity of variability for health and functional movement, this perspective article argues for changes in the way therapists view variability, both in theory and in action. By providing clinical examples, as well as applying existing knowledge about complex systems, the aim of this article is to create a springboard for new directions in physical therapist research and practice.

Positing Nonconceptual Representations

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Neander
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Young Woman ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Human Vision ◽  
Psychological Process ◽  
Central Tenet ◽  
Normal Human ◽  
Visual Targets ◽  
Work Done ◽  
The Way

In the second chapter, the author describes some research by cognitive scientists, who posit nonconceptual representations to explain certain perceptual capacities (and incapacities). This research and the way in which it is reported illustrate the type of theoretical work done by an error-permitting notion of nonconceptual representation, alongside a malfunction-permitting notion of function. One set of studies (led by McCloskey) that is described in some detail focuses on an unusual deficit in locating visual targets (in a young woman, AH), which were intended to contribute to understanding normal human vision. The author makes clear why the contents ascribed to the underlying representational states, where the errors first occur, are referential-intentional contents, not merely (natural-factive) informational contents, and why their ascriptions count as intensional, according to standard criteria. Toward the end of the chapter, the author reminds readers of a familiar conundrum: if a representation’s having content is not causally potent in a psychological process, why is it (still) a central tenet of mainstream cognitive science that such a process should be understood as representational?

Resituating cognitive mechanisms within heterarchical networks controlling physiology and behavior

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 620-639 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Bechtel
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Neural Control ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Physiological Processes ◽  
High Level ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Production Mechanisms

Cognitive science has traditionally focused on mechanisms involved in high-level reasoning and problem-solving processes. Such mechanisms are often treated as autonomous from but controlling underlying physiological processes. I offer a different perspective on cognition which starts with the basic production mechanisms through which organisms construct and repair themselves and navigate their environments and then I develop a framework for conceptualizing how cognitive control mechanisms form a heterarchical network that regulates production mechanisms. Many of these control mechanisms perform cognitive tasks such as evaluating circumstances and making decisions. Cognitive control mechanisms are present in individual cells, but in metazoans, intracellular control is supplemented by a nervous system in which a multitude of neural control mechanisms are organized heterarchically. On this perspective, high-level cognitive mechanisms are not autonomous, but are elements in larger heterarchical networks. This has implications for future directions in cognitive science research.

Theoretical Context of Cybercrime

2021 ◽  
pp. 174-191
Author(s):  
Tansif Ur Rehman
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Innovative Development ◽  
Social Facts ◽  
Social Theories ◽  
The World ◽  
The Way

The internet is conceivably today's most innovative development as it proceeds to change everyday life for almost everyone globally. Billions of individuals are using the internet, and thousands enter the online world each day. Not merely has the internet revolutionized the way people connect and learn; it has eternally changed the way people live across the globe. As the internet and computer advances, offenders have originated ways to utilize these innovations as intended for their criminal acts. In social science research, social theories are of great significance. Without a theoretical direction, social facts are like a snuffed-out candle that cannot determine its bearer's path. Social theories contribute to the development of sound scientific foundations for resolving issues in any social inquiry. Theories guide our observations of the world. Digital technology has an impact and has numerous challenges. The respective work has its significance in helping and exploring this dilemma via a multifaceted theoretical approach.

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