Cognitive Science: An Introduction, Second Edition by Neil Stillings (PDF)

Description

Cognitive Science is a single-source undergraduate text that broadly surveys the theories and empirical results of cognitive science within a consistent computational perspective. In addition to covering the individual contributions of psychology, philosophy, linguistics, and artificial intelligence to cognitive science, the book has been revised to introduce the connectionist approach as well as the classical symbolic approach and adds a new chapter on cognitively related advances in neuroscience.Cognitive science is a rapidly evolving field that is characterized by considerable contention among different views and approaches. Cognitive Science presents these in a relatively neutral manner. It covers many new orientations theories and findings, embedding them in an integrated computational perspective and establishing a sense of continuity and contrast with more traditional work in cognitive science. The text assumes no prerequisite knowledge, introducing all topics in a uniform, accessible style. Many topics, such as natural language processing and vision, however, are developed in considerable depth, which allows the book to be used with more advanced undergraduates or even in beginning graduate settings.A Bradford Book

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review This is the first introductory text in cognitive science that provides comprehensive coverage of the field… [it] provides a solid foundation forthe beginning student. (Arthur C. Graesser Contemporary Psychology) About the Author Jay Garfield is Doris Silbert Professor in the Humanities, Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Logic Program and of the Five College Tibetan Studies in India Program at Smith College, Professor in the graduate faculty of Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts, Professor of Philosophy at Melbourne University and Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies.Edwina L. Rissland was Professor of Computer Science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She coauthored Cognitive Science: An Integrated Approach (MIT Press), one of the first textbooks in the field, and was a founding member of the editorial board of the journal Artificial Intelligence and Law.

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐I needed a good introductory text on Cognitive Science for my thesis so I chose Stillings, et al., among others. I have to say that I’m in no position (professionally) to really rate this book, but it is very detailed. I did get some good basic information but then I turned to page two, and well, it just got scary! It’s chock full o’ info, (more than an introduction in my humble opinion) not for the faint of heart or mind where the cognitive sciences are concerned. Great book, just not for a curious beginner like myself.

⭐This old book is a great introduction to all of the fields that make up cognitive science at a relatively low price, although it could use an updated edition. It takes a computational perspective as it surveys the various areas, and that is good for someone coming from a scientific field. It covers psychology, philosophy, linguistics, and artificial intelligence, relating them all to the field of cognitive science. In spite of the complexity of each of these individual areas, there really are no hard prerequisites for reading it. However, I would recommend you have at least an upper-level undergraduate knowledge of two of the fields covered in order to better see the total interconnection of all the fields. The book probably goes into the most depth in the areas of natural language processing and vision because these are the most computationally complex. This book is not the last word on any of the fields it covers, but it will get you started. I highly recommend it in spite of its age. The following is the book’s table of contents:Chapter 1 What Is Cognitive Science? 1.1 The Cognitive View 1.2 Some Fundamental Concepts 1.3 Information Processes Can Be Analyzed At Several Levels 1.4 Computers In Cognitive Science 1.5 Applied Cognitive Science 1.6 The Interdisciplinary Nature of Cognitive Science Chapter 2 Cognitive Psychology: The Architecture of the Mind 2.1 The Nature of Cognitive Psychology 2.2 The Notion of Cognitive Architecture 2.3 A Global View of The Cognitive Architecture 2.4 Propositional Representation 2.5 Schematic Representation 2.6 Cognitive Processes, Working Memory, and Attention 2.7 Mental Images 2.8 Automatic and Controlled Processes 2.9 The Acquisition of Skill 2.10 The Connectionist Approach to Cognitive Architecture Chapter 3 Cognitive Psychology: Further Explorations 3.1 Concepts and Categories 3.2 Memory 3.3 Reasoning 3.4 Problem Solving Chapter 4 Artificial Intelligence: Knowledge Representation 4.1 The Nature of Artificial Intelligence 4.2 Knowledge Representation Chapter 5 Artificial Intelligence: Search, Control, and Learning 5.1 Search and Control 5.2 Learning Chapter 6 Linguistics: The Representation of Language 6.1 The Study of Linguistic Knowledge 6.2 Phonology 6.3 Syntax 6.4 Universals Chapter 7 Neuroscience: Brain and Cognition 7.1 Introduction to the Study of the Nervous System 7.2 Organization of the Central Nervous System 7.3 Neural Representation 7.4 Neuropsychology 7.5 Computational Neuroscience Chapter 8 Philosophy: Foundations of Cognitive Science 8.1 Philosophy in Cognitive Science 8.2 The Enterprise of Cognitive Science 8.3 Ontological Issues 8.4 Epistemological Issues 8.5 The State of Cognitive Science Chapter 9 Language Acquisition 9.1 Milestones in Acquisition 9.2 Theoretical Perspectives Chapter 10 Semantics 10.1 Semantics and Cognitive Science 10.2 Meaning and Entailment 10.3 Reference 10.4 Sense 10.5 Problems in Possible-Worlds Semantics 10.6 Cognitive and Computational Models of Semantic Processing Chapter 11 Natural Language Processing 11.1 Preliminaries 11.2 On the Role of Grammar in Language Processing 11.3 Connectionist Models 11.4 On the Role of Discourse 11.5 More on the Role of General Knowledge 11.6 Production 11.7 Conclusion Chapter 12 Vision 12.1 The Problem of Vision 12.2 Low-Level Visual Processes 12.3 Intermediate Processes and Representations in Vision 12.4 High-Level Visual Processes 12.5 The Architecture of Visual Computation

⭐This text is most definitely not an introduction. It is comprehensive and certainly useful, but if you’re a beginner like me looking to grasp the fundamentals of cognitive science, there are easier paths. The text seems to assume that the reader already understands certain concepts and employs technical terminology from the start without much explanation. The rather dense, obtuse writing style does not help. If you’re a layman, a beginner without any background in cognitive science, you’ll save yourself much confusion and frustration by not buying this book. I might recommend this book to someone already familiar with cognitive science needing a refresher, as the text is thorough and comprehensive.

⭐What do you expect from a cognitive science book, which neatly separates all the major fields (Cognitive Psychology, Artificial Intelligence, Linguistics, Neuroscience, Philosophy, Language Acquisition, Semantics, Natural Language Processing, Vision), into chapters? First of all, it is not a mile-wide inch-deep book. Quite the contrary, it has remarkable detail, and it’s definitely not an easy book for the beginner. However the fragments are not well-connected to each other, and there are no threads of thought one can follow through the text. Probably the most important problem of cognitive science is the gap between the disciplines, and the lack of a common terminology. The authors have adopted an information-processing view, and overstepped this problem rather than solving it. The result is a biased book, which is really nice if you like the information theoretic approach (like I do), but as a course-book, I suggest it as the supplementary reading.

⭐Cognitive Science: An Introduction – 2nd Edition is a fascinating undergraduate text that accurately shows all of the subsets of the cognitive sciences. Cognitive Science: An Introduction – 2nd Edition introduces the advanced undergraduate student to cognitive science subsets such as cognitive psychology, cognitive anthropology, cognitive computational intelligence, cognitive linguistics, cognitive nurro-science, and the philosophy of the cognitive sciences. The diagrams in Cognitive Science: An Introduction – 2nd Edition are very vivid to demonstrate exactly what a philosophers/scientists sees in the subject matter of the cognitive sciences. The undergraduate text provides a very a empirical perspective of the cognitive sciences that differs directly from the classical transcendental perspective of cognition that the philosopher Immanuel Cant demonstrated in the Critique Of Pure Reason. The cognitive sciences can be very difficult to understand, but Cognitive Science: An Introduction – 2nd Edition is one of the best resources to explore the new empirical study of the science of the process of thought.Please feel free to send questions or comments to mmount@essex1.com

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