Download The Cognitive Revolution: a historical perspective

THE
COGNITIVE
REVOLUTION:
A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
Asheley Landrum and Amy Louise Schwarz
Behaviorism
Behaviorism

Premise
Psychology as an objective science
 Mental events ≠ observable events

Behaviorism

Premise
Psychology as an objective science
 Mental events ≠ observable events

 Outcome
 Perception
= Discrimination
 Memory = Learning
 Language = Verbal Behavior
 Intelligence = What intelligence tests test
Limitations of Behaviorism

It cannot explain a natural language.

Much of human experience is unobservable.
 Memory
 Decision
making
 Perceptual experience
 Other mental events
Revolution Begins
“Defining psychology as the science of
behavior is like defining physics as
the science of meter reading.”
– Noam Chomsky
Cognitive Revolution
Cognitive Revolution


Mentalism = Cognition
Integrate mentalistic concepts to explain
behavioral data.
 Re-opened
communication with Europe
1956 - Critical Year: Information
Processing (Newell & Simon)

Began Development of Artificial Intelligence

Studies about Thinking
 Notions
of Cognitive Strategies
 Magic # 7, plus or minus 2

Signal Detection Theory applied to Perception
9/11/56: Moment of Conception

Interdisciplinary Approach
AI
Math
Computer
Science
Language
Neuropsychology
9/11/56: Moment of Conception

Key Papers
 “Logic
Machine” (Newell & Simon)
 Testing Neuropsychological Theory of Cell Assembly
(Rochester at IBM)
 Statistical analysis of gaps in relation to syntax
(Yngve)
 Mathematics of Grammar – transformational grammar
(Chomsky)
 Speed of Perceptual Recognition (Szikakli)
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation




Created Neuroscience
Created a program: cognitive science
Miller argued: Interdisciplinary field
Report created for the Foundation




Scholars from several fields came together
Unwilling to comment on each other’s disciplines
So, just summarized their own fields
Foundation provided grants to promote
communication between disciplines.
Discussion Questions
Discussion Questions
Psycholinguistics
Discussion Questions


Miller only labeled four of the connections between
fields. What interdisciplinary fields link the
remaining nodes?
What field belongs at the center of the figure?
Discussion Questions
Discussion Questions

Miller contends the central three are:
 Psychology,
 Linguistics,
and
 Computer Science

What is your opinion?
Cognitive Science vs Cognitive Sciences



What are the benefits of thinking of it as a unified
science?
What are the detriments?
Should people from different disciplines comment
regularly on each other’s work?
Artificial Intelligence


Do you think it is possible to advance
artificial intelligence to the point
where it accurately mimics life?
Are there any aspects of human
cognition that you believe are unable
to be replicated?
Discussion Questions

This article is a personal account
of the cognitive revolution.
What is added or taken away
by this being a personal account
as opposed to a historical
perspective as the title
suggests?
Discussion Questions

How did the invention of the computer contribute to
the perception of cognitive science?