Cognitive Science: An Introduction, Second Edition [Paperback]

Neil Stillings (Author), Steven E. Weisler (Author), Christopher H. Chase (Author), Mark H. Feinstein (Author), Jay L. Garfield (Author), Edwina L. Rissland (Author), Neil A. Stillings (Author), Steven W. Weisler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 17, 1995 | ISBN-10: 0262691752 | ISBN-13: 978-0262691758 | Edition: second edition

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

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This is the first introductory text in cognitive science that providescomprehensive coverage of the field...[it] provides a solid foundation forthe beginning student." Arthur C. Graesser, ContemporaryPsychology

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.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: A Bradford Book; second edition edition (March 17, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262691752
• ISBN-13: 978-0262691758
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,089,680 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An introduction, but not a gentle one..., February 6, 2001

By 

Albert Ali Salah (Turkey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cognitive Science: An Introduction, 2nd Edition (Bradford Books) (Hardcover)

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.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great introduction for a low price, January 14, 2007

By 

calvinnme - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Cognitive Science: An Introduction, Second Edition (Paperback)

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

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars That's SOME introduction!, June 10, 2009

By 

T. Corsico Piccolino "Avid reader" (Vigevano, PV Italy) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Cognitive Science: An Introduction, Second Edition (Paperback)

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.