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 Effects of Animacy in Grammar and Cognition: Introduction to Special Issue

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 260-267
Author(s):  
Virve-Anneli Vihman ◽  
Diane Nelson
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Linguistic Evidence ◽  
Grammatical Structures

AbstractMost, if not all, languages exhibit “animacy effects”: grammatical structures interact with the relative animacy of noun referents, as represented on various versions of animacy scales, with human discourse participants at one end and inanimate objects at the other. Cross-linguistic evidence attests to a range of linguistic phenomena conditioned by animacy, with complex effects requiring (a) subtler distinctions than a binary contrast [± animate] and (b) more sophisticated analyses than mapping higher animacy to higher grammatical role.This paper introduces the Special Issue, “Effects of Animacy in Grammar and Cognition”, in which the linguistic interest in grammatical effects of animacy is aligned with broader questions concerning animacy in cognition, including the origins of animacy in language, the biases underlying how we attend to animacy distinctions and how animacy affects discourse. Recent work in cognitive science and adjacent fields has contributed to the understanding of the role of animacy across linguistic domains. Yet, despite the consensus that sensitivity to animacy is a property central to human cognition, there is no agreement on how to incorporate animacy within linguistic theories. This SI focusses on the cognitive construal of animacy, aiming to extend our understanding of its role in grammar(s) and theory.

scholarly journals Visualizing Data to Support Judgement, Inference, and Decision Making in Learning Analytics: Insights from Cognitive Psychology and Visualization Science

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sakinah S.J. Alhadad
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Cognitive Psychology ◽  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Learning Analytics ◽  
Inference Making ◽  
Methodological Choices ◽  
Data Visualizations ◽  
Effective Design

Understanding human judgement and decision making during visual inspection of data is of both practical and theoretical interest. While visualizing data is a commonly employed mechanism to support complex cognitive processes such as inference, judgement, and decision making, the process of supporting and scaffolding cognition through effective design is less well understood. Applying insights from cognitive psychology and visualization science, this paper critically discusses the role of human factors — visual attention, perception, judgement, and decision making — toward informing methodological choices when visualizing data. The value of visualizing data is discussed in two key domains: 1) visualizing data as a means of communication; and 2) visualizing data as research methodology. The first applies cognitive science principles and research evidence to inform data visualization design for communication. The second applies data- and cognitive-science to deepen our understanding of data, of its uncertainty, and of analysis when making inferences. The evidence for human capacity limitations — attention and cognition — are discussed in the context of data visualizations to support inference-making in both domains, and are followed by recommendations. Finally, how learning analytics can further research on understanding the role data visualizations can play in supporting complex cognition is proposed.

scholarly journals The exploratory status of postconnectionist models

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-164
Author(s):  
Miljana Milojevic ◽  
Vanja Subotic
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Neural Nets ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Connectionist Models ◽  
Learning Techniques ◽  
History Of ◽  
Alternative Methodology ◽  
Connectionist Approach ◽  
Sharp Criticism

This paper aims to offer a new view of the role of connectionist models in the study of human cognition through the conceptualization of the history of connectionism - from the simplest perceptrons to convolutional neural nets based on deep learning techniques, as well as through the interpretation of criticism coming from symbolic cognitive science. Namely, the connectionist approach in cognitive science was the target of sharp criticism from the symbolists, which on several occasions caused its marginalization and almost complete abandonment of its assumptions in the study of cognition. Criticisms have mostly pointed to its explanatory inadequacy as a theory of cognition or to its biological implausibility as a theory of implementation, and critics often focused on specific shortcomings of some connectionist models and argued that they apply on connectionism in general. In this paper we want to show that both types of critique are based on the assumption that the only valid explanations in cognitive science are instances of homuncular functionalism and that by removing this assumption and by adopting an alternative methodology - exploratory mechanistic strategy, we can reject most objections to connectionism as irrelevant, explain the progress of connectionist models despite their shortcomings and sketch the trajectory of their future development. By adopting mechanistic explanations and by criticizing functionalism, we will reject the objections of explanatory inadequacy, by characterizing connectionist models as generic rather than concrete mechanisms, we will reject the objections of biological implausibility, and by attributing the exploratory character to connectionist models we will show that practice of generalizing current to general failures of connectionism is unjustified.

Varieties of embodiment in cognitive science

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolás Alessandroni
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Embodied Cognition ◽  
Multilevel Analysis ◽  
Hierarchical Model ◽  
The Body ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Extended Body ◽  
Philosophical Debates

This article presents an epistemological multilevel analysis of the embodied cognition studies’ programme. It is proposed that within the cognitive-embodied type it is possible to find at least four distinct hypotheses regarding the role of the body in human cognition: (a) body-in-action hypothesis, (b) extended body hypothesis, (c) ecological body hypothesis, and (d) body-as-a-physical-datum hypothesis. The foundations of these hypotheses and some philosophical debates underlying embodiment are discussed in-depth. After briefly addressing the key contributions of social embodied theories, the article presents a hierarchical model that allows for the analysis of the epistemological consequences derived from each embodiment conception. Finally, a prospective epistemological criticism is introduced to provide a comprehensive and contemporary overview of the issue.

Elaborating the role of reflection and individual differences in the study of folk-economic beliefs

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Arceneaux
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Evolutionary History ◽  
Behavioral Responses ◽  
History Of ◽  
Economic Beliefs

AbstractIntuitions guide decision-making, and looking to the evolutionary history of humans illuminates why some behavioral responses are more intuitive than others. Yet a place remains for cognitive processes to second-guess intuitive responses – that is, to be reflective – and individual differences abound in automatic, intuitive processing as well.

Language as a mental travel guide

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles P. Davis ◽  
Gerry T. M. Altmann ◽  
Eiling Yee
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Travel Guide

Abstract Gilead et al.'s approach to human cognition places abstraction and prediction at the heart of “mental travel” under a “representational diversity” perspective that embraces foundational concepts in cognitive science. But, it gives insufficient credit to the possibility that the process of abstraction produces a gradient, and underestimates the importance of a highly influential domain in predictive cognition: language, and related, the emergence of experientially based structure through time.

The role of social and cognitive processes in children's adjustment to community violence.

1998 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 199-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy Kliewer ◽  
Stephen J. Lepore ◽  
Deborah Oskin ◽  
Patricia D. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Community Violence ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Children's Adjustment ◽  
Children’S Adjustment

Quantitative Conditions and Convergent Operations That Are Compatible With the Universe as a Persistent Generator of Successive Simulations

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 4178-4187
Author(s):  
Michael A Persinger ◽  
Stanley A Koren
Keyword(s):  
Structural Organization ◽  
Total Duration ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Intrinsic Properties ◽  
Basic Assumptions ◽  
Electron Orbit ◽  
Quantitative Analyses ◽  
Massive Information ◽  
The Universe

                The capacity for computer-like simulations to be generated by massive information processing from electron-spin potentials supports Bostrom’s hypothesis that matter and human cognition might reflect simulations. Quantitative analyses of the basic assumptions indicate the universe may display properties of a simulation where photons behave as pixels and gravitons control the structural organization. The Lorentz solution for the square of the light and entanglement velocities converges with the duration of a single electron orbit that ultimately defines properties of matter. The approximately one trillion potential states within the same space with respect to the final epoch of the universe indicate that a different simulation, each with intrinsic properties, has been and will be generated as a type of tractrix defined by ±2 to 3 days (total duration 5 to 6 days). It may define the causal limits within a simulation. Because of the intrinsic role of photons as the pixel unit, phenomena within which flux densities are enhanced, such as human cognition (particularly dreaming) and the cerebral regions associated with those functions, create the conditions for entanglement or excess correlations between contiguous simulations. The consistent quantitative convergence of operations indicates potential validity for this approach. The emergent solutions offer alternative explanations for the limits of predictions for multivariate phenomena that could be coupled to more distal simulations.

The Central Role of Cognitive Computations in Human-Information Interaction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wai-Tat Fu ◽  
Jessie Chin ◽  
Q. Vera Liao
Keyword(s):  
Information Systems ◽  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Intelligent Systems ◽  
Intelligent System ◽  
Levels Of Abstraction ◽  
Intelligent Information Systems ◽  
Emergent Behaviour ◽  
Information Interaction ◽  
Intelligent Information

Cognitive science is a science of intelligent systems. This chapter proposes that cognitive science can provide useful perspectives for research on technology-mediated human-information interaction (HII) when HII is cast as emergent behaviour of a coupled intelligent system. It starts with a review of a few foundational concepts related to cognitive computations and how they can be applied to understand the nature of HII. It discusses several important properties of a coupled cognitive system and their implication to designs of information systems. Finally, it covers how levels of abstraction have been useful for cognitive science, and how these levels can inform design of intelligent information systems that are more compatible with human cognitive computations.

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