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The Cambridge Handbook of Cognitive Science
Cognitive science is a cross-disciplinary enterprise devoted to understanding the nature of the mind. In recent years, investigators in philosophy, psychology, the neurosciences, artificial intelligence, and a host of other disciplines have come to appreciate how much they can learn from one another about the various dimensions of cognition. The result has been the emergence of one of the most exciting and fruitful areas of inter-disciplinary research in the history of science. This volume of original essays surveys foundational, theoretical, and philosophical issues across the discipline, and introduces the foundations of cognitive science, the principal areas of research, and the major research programs. With a focus on broad philosophical themes rather than detailed technical issues, the volume will be valuable not only to cognitive scientists and philosophers of cognitive science, but also to those in other disciplines looking for an authoritative and up-to-date introduction to the field.
348 pages, Hardcover
First published June 30, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 27, 2021
Some chapters in this book give a nice summary of the key concepts and ideas and models of cognitive science: e.g the chapter on cognitive architectures and on concepts or the one on memory and learning. Other chapters seem too much based on specific biases of their authors rather than representing a standard/synthesis view: e.g the chapters on representational theory of mind or on consciousness (for representations and representational theory of mind, stanford encyclopedia of philosophy is better and free).
the book doesn't provide an overall unified picture of cognitive science or the mind. For this, Pinker's 'How the Mind Works' is better, or maybe a more undergrad oriented text. But, for someone who's already read up on these topics from outher sources, it promises to summarise key topics with each topic requiring less than 20 pages which is not bad overall.
I see this book as a complement to other readings on cognitive science rather than a standalone summary of the field. it definitely covers some key topics reasonably well and the field itself is fascinating, which makes it hard to write an uninteresting book about it.
the book doesn't provide an overall unified picture of cognitive science or the mind. For this, Pinker's 'How the Mind Works' is better, or maybe a more undergrad oriented text. But, for someone who's already read up on these topics from outher sources, it promises to summarise key topics with each topic requiring less than 20 pages which is not bad overall.
I see this book as a complement to other readings on cognitive science rather than a standalone summary of the field. it definitely covers some key topics reasonably well and the field itself is fascinating, which makes it hard to write an uninteresting book about it.
January 3, 2022
The Cambridge Handbook of Cognitive Science is a good reference book dealing with the history, the most current developments and research in cognitive science. It is not a technical book. It is rather a collection of essays by experts in the field: psychology, philosophy, computer science, neuroscience and anthropology."A number of the chapters in this volume are written by people who are usually characterized, not as cognitive scientists per se, but as philosophers of cognitive science".
I found it a little bit difficult to read. Some parts I needed to read more slowly and carefully. Cognitive science is still a field of knowledge that is not entirely unified and coherent. Its is in its infancy. We are far from fully understanding how the brain and mind works, despite the progress made. This book describes some theories that have been developed throughout history to the present, on cognitive processes in the brain/mind: memory, learning, perception, action, decision making, language, emotion, consciousness .
My final thought is that there are too much to investigate further, to integrate many different theories into a coherent and unified theory of mind. This book is a good reference on the state of the art in cognitive science (mostly philosophical), and the exciting and challenging interdisciplinary research, going on, and still to carry out.
I found it a little bit difficult to read. Some parts I needed to read more slowly and carefully. Cognitive science is still a field of knowledge that is not entirely unified and coherent. Its is in its infancy. We are far from fully understanding how the brain and mind works, despite the progress made. This book describes some theories that have been developed throughout history to the present, on cognitive processes in the brain/mind: memory, learning, perception, action, decision making, language, emotion, consciousness .
My final thought is that there are too much to investigate further, to integrate many different theories into a coherent and unified theory of mind. This book is a good reference on the state of the art in cognitive science (mostly philosophical), and the exciting and challenging interdisciplinary research, going on, and still to carry out.
February 4, 2016
This is a good reference book, but I didn't and wouldn't assign it to my classes. Although the chapters are often good overviews, there are also several that are just in the authors' wheelhouse and not as interdisciplinary as cognitive science should be.
September 25, 2022
I found the broad background on cognitive science quite illuminating. The foundations chapters - history, representational theory of mind, and cognitive architecture - provide the general background and pointed out the competing schools of thought, well mostly not schools so much as individuals. The middle section provided some deeper insight into some key aspects of cognition currently being studied. Of the eight chapters, three were excellent for me, a couple more might have been good for someone who was more interested in that topic, and the rest seemed a little naïve. It seemed that the chapters were written independently and were not used to reinforce each other.
The chapter on perception was the most developed area and one of the more interesting pieces. The chapter on action was way too narrowly focused, looking at milliseconds rather than the time scales of intelligent activity by normal humans. It seemed odd that the concepts and language chapters went in such different directions (my own thought is that a couple of basic concepts - object recognition and motion - are key concepts in thought and language but neither chapter helped me in that area). The Emotion and Consciousness chapters were helpful in reinforcing my knowledge, but not much new material. Most of what I read in these areas was published after this book.
The final section on research programs was helpful, particularly cognitive neuroscience. Research in evolutionary psychology, embodied and animal cognition provided some insights, but again was mostly older versions of my previous studies. I was a little surprised that some older theories that I know of were left out.
Overall, there seemed to be a general bowing to celebrity theorists, not necessarily the best theorists. Plenty of references and further reading is included, although the progress in this field is rapid so much of that is likely out of date. Still, results and analysis of experiments never goes out of date, unless the methodology is completely debunked. So those references are important.
The chapter on perception was the most developed area and one of the more interesting pieces. The chapter on action was way too narrowly focused, looking at milliseconds rather than the time scales of intelligent activity by normal humans. It seemed odd that the concepts and language chapters went in such different directions (my own thought is that a couple of basic concepts - object recognition and motion - are key concepts in thought and language but neither chapter helped me in that area). The Emotion and Consciousness chapters were helpful in reinforcing my knowledge, but not much new material. Most of what I read in these areas was published after this book.
The final section on research programs was helpful, particularly cognitive neuroscience. Research in evolutionary psychology, embodied and animal cognition provided some insights, but again was mostly older versions of my previous studies. I was a little surprised that some older theories that I know of were left out.
Overall, there seemed to be a general bowing to celebrity theorists, not necessarily the best theorists. Plenty of references and further reading is included, although the progress in this field is rapid so much of that is likely out of date. Still, results and analysis of experiments never goes out of date, unless the methodology is completely debunked. So those references are important.
September 8, 2015
Cognitive science
This is a compilation of papers from various authors covering numerous subjects in the growing field of cognitive science. The field includes AI R and R, but the papers d o not specifically address this subject aside from describing how AI development may stem from research in cognitive science and how AI algorithms may help in the development of the study of mind, memory, and action. I found the papers on cognition and evolution fascinating.
This is a compilation of papers from various authors covering numerous subjects in the growing field of cognitive science. The field includes AI R and R, but the papers d o not specifically address this subject aside from describing how AI development may stem from research in cognitive science and how AI algorithms may help in the development of the study of mind, memory, and action. I found the papers on cognition and evolution fascinating.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews