[dc.general] Questions about Cognitive Science

ctice@pbs.uucp (02/02/90)

In article <5819.25bf0751@pbs.uucp>, ctice@pbs.uucp writes:
>     I am a computer programmer, and I am contemplating going to graduate
> school in the near future.  As part of that, I am trying to pick an area of 

    This is a summary of all the responses I got to my posting "Questions 
about Cognitive Science".  I would like to thank everyone who took the time
and effort to reply.

    Looking under Cognitive Psychology may give more information than looking
under Cognitive Science, although the latter actually encompasses the former.
Cognitive Science is the study of cognition in people, i.e. the study of 
intelligence and the mechanisms that may account for "intelligent" behavior.
It can also be classified as the study of the human brain.  It involves 
questions such as how do people understand language, see, store memory, etc.  
University libraries are more likely to have useful information than public
libraries.

    Cognitive Science is NOT really a "sub-category" of Artificial 
Intelligence, although it overlaps with AI.  It is a relatively new, inter-
disciplinary field involving psychology, anthropology, philosophy, artificial 
intelligence, linguistics, and neurology (to name a few fields).  It is a 
broad field, and very difficult to define precisely.  One of the key 
differences between Cog Sci and AI is that Cog Scientists who do work with 
computer models design models based upon human cognition.  AI researchers are 
not so restricted and are free to develop any problem solving system which 
performs those skills usually associated with humans, but not necessarily in 
the same manner as humans.  Another opinion (fact?) is that mainstream AI 
involves a lot of mathematical analysis and theorem proving, while Cog Sci
leans more towards empirical data, more broad coverage of issues with less 
specifics and less formal math.

    Some people in the field are:

	Don Norman at UCSD (Univ. of California - San Diego)
	Herb Simon at CMU (Carnegie Mellon University?)
	Allan Newell at CMU
	John Anderson
	Sarah Lesher at NCI (lesher@ncifcrf.gov)
	Randy Smith at MIT (randy@wheaties.ai.mit.edu)
	Donald Perlis at University of Maryland

    Suggested universities are:

	Arizona
	Brandice
	Brown University
       *Carnegie Mellon University
       *Massachusetts Institute of Technology
	State University of New York, Buffalo
	UCI
	University of California, Los Angeles
       *University of California, San Diego (contact Lynne Keith)
	University of Colorado, Boulder
	University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland
	University of Michigan
	University of Sussex, Brighton, England (School of Cog. & Comp. Sci)
	University of Washington, Seattle (contact Earl Hunt)
	University of Wisconsin, Madison
       *Yale

    *These universities were recommended most often
	
    Suggested books:

	"Foundations of Cognitive Science" (ed.) Posner, published by MIT press
	"The Minds New Science" by Gardner
	"Computers and Thought:  A Practical Introduction to Artificial
	    Intelligence" by Sharples, Hogg, Hutchinson, Torrance, & Young,
	    published by MIT press
	a book by Johnson-Laird (1988?)  (No title given)
	a book by Stillings	         (No title given)
	
    Suggested journals in the field are:

	"Cognitive Science" published by Ablex
	"Cog Psych"
	"Memory and Cognition"
	"Brain and Behavioral Sciences"


Again, thanks for all your responses!

					Caroline Tice

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salzberg@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU (Steven L Salzberg) (02/02/90)

In your message summarizing cognitive science programs and
schools, you omitted one quite near to your own headquarters
in D.C.  Just up the road in Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University
has a Cognitive Science Center, offering both undergraduate
and graduate degrees.  The Director of the center is Prof. Alfonso
Carramazza.

                        Steven Salzberg
                        Dept. of Computer Science
                        Johns Hopkins University
                        Baltimore, MD 21218
                        salzberg@crabcake.cs.jhu.edu