Philosophy and Cognitive Science Philosophy has an unusual

Philosophy and Cognitive Science Philosophy has an unusual status in Cognitive Science; it’s always included as one of the component disciplines, but it’s role is not always clear. Philosophers are not typically involved in experimental work or the modeling of data.

Other Possibilities -Science writing, explaining results from cognitive science in layperson’s terms -More importantly, showing how results in cognitive science might bear on traditional philosophical questions (about the mind, the self, nativism, empiricism. . . )

Theoretical contributions to cognitive science: (a) formulating conceptual frameworks—new theories, concepts, etc. --that motivate empirical work (b) examining and proposing explanations of the basic concepts that empirical researchers sometimes appeal to (for example, of representation or causation).

Situated Cognition One view of cognition that many in the situated camp oppose: --Input --tons of problem-solving processing --then output Think of programs that play chess or tic, tac, toe or that solve the tower of Hanoi problem

Another style of cognition Consider a highly interactive process, such as driving or playing a real-time video game. There is an ongoing interdependence. The driver continuously changes the car through the wheel; the car continuously acts on the driver, changing what the driver does.

In between -use of pencil and paper or calculator to solve math problems -use of computer to write papers -past interaction to shape current abilities

Situated Cognition: A disjointed field -Embedded cognition: human cognitive processing depends heavily on the use of external resources -Extended cognition: human cognitive processes (or the human cognitive system) literally include portions of the external environment

Embodied cognition: Fine-grained properties of the physical body play an especially important role in cognitive processing. Often emphasizes the role of sensory and motor processes in cognition.