Representation
Cognitive Science is the science of mental representations and processes. But what are representations?
Primary Readings
Everyone should read these and be prepared to discuss:
| Markman, A.B. (1998) | Knowledge Representation: Chapter One (on learn)Pop out notes with a chalkboard item are guides from your instructors. This reading is on Learn. |
| Tolman, E.C. (1948) | Cognitive maps in rats and men. Psychological Review, 55(4), 189. |
Additional Readings
The presenter should read and incorporate these:
| Larkin & Simon (1987) | Why a Diagram is (Sometimes) Worth 10,000 Words. Cognitive Science, 11, 65-99.Pop out notes with a robot icon are automatically generated paper summaries. So take them with a grain of salt! The article discusses the advantages of using diagrammatic representations in problem-solving. Diagrams can convey implicit information more efficiently than sentential representations. The authors examine the computational efficiency and effectiveness of both types of representations in solving mathematical and physics problems. They argue that diagrams provide explicit information at a single location, enabling smoother problem-solving processes with reduced need for search and computation. |
| van Gelder, T. (1995) | What Might Cognition Be, If Not Computation? The Journal of Philosophy, 92(7), 345-381.In this article, the author challenges the dominant computational view of cognition and explores alternative explanations for cognitive processes. The author discusses various research programs, such as connectionism, neurocomputational approaches, and ecological psychology, that offer different conceptions of cognition. |
Questions under discussion
- What was the cognitive revolution?
- What are representations?
- What evidence do we have for cognitive representations?
