Introduction to Cognitive Science

Lecture 1:

In any field, find the strangest and most fascinating thing and then explore it. John Archibald Wheeler
(theoretical physicist)
- The minds of humans are the greatest remaining challenge to be understood.

Cognitive science: the study of how the mind works!

- Perception
- Language
- Reasoning
- Attention
- Problem-solving
- Intelligence
- Memory
- Expertise
- Imagery
- Decision-making
- Emotions
- Consciousness

Burning questions:
- How do we recognize faces?
o Recognizing faces is like a mental reflex it is instantaneous and we cant help it! (just as
we cannot help understanding what Professor Scholl is saying when we listen to his lectures)
- Why do companies offer cash discounts rather than credit-card surcharges?
o Gas stations let you use credit cards with a surcharge. However, credit card companies
began to call it a cash discount. It turns out that this has a huge effect on decision making,
because people would much rather forgo a discount than to pay a surcharge
- What is the square root of 144? How many windows were there on the 2nd floor of the house in
which you grew up?
o These questions study how people answer Qs. For the second question, people employ
mental imagery.
- What do we see?
o Visual illusion: People sitting down eating dinner. What changes as the picture flashes? A
railing moves.
o Visual illusion: There is an airplane. What changes as the picture flashes? A huge part of the
plane disappears and appears.
o Visual illusion: Disappearing yellow dot
- How do nature and nurture interact to determine
o Our personalities?
o How smart we are?
o Our political persuasions?
o It turns out that there is a strong genetic component to all of these!
- How has evolution shaped what (and who we find attractive)?
o Face #1: F M
o Face #2: M F
o These faces are identical except that the sides are flipped!
- Other burning questions:
o In what ways is the mind like and not like a computer?
o How do children learn what beliefs are?
 o What happens in your brain when you recognize a melody?
o How did you read this sentence?
o What do 6-month-old infants know about mathematics?
o What have we learned about ourselves from studying robots?
o What are the most bizarre ways that brains can malfunction?
o How does fMRI work?
o What does it mean to be conscious of something?
o How and why did cooperation evolve?
o What separates us from our nearest nonhuman relatives?
o Why do we fall in love?

Cognitive Processes:
1) What are the representations and processes in our minds that underwrite these capacities? (i.e. what
makes these capacities possible?)
2) How are they acquired, and how do they develop?
3) How are they implemented in underlying hardware (biological or otherwise)?

Cognitive Science:
- Reverse-engineering the mind!
- Reverse engineering: Analyzing a working machine into its parts and interactions, with the
goal to explain, manipulate, and replicate its behavior
- Example: TiVo (take it apart!) and the Stealth Bomber

Applied cognitive science:

- Some examples: Attention Jet cockpits, Object recognition NSA satellites, Memory
Eyewitness testimony, Decision making $ (e.g. Insurance)
- NJ and PA car insurance policies:
o Choices: higher premium but more rights to sue vs. lower premium but fewer rights to sue
o Different wording: Heres your premium. If you want to give up your rights to sue, you can pay a
lower premium. OR Here is your premium. Pay more if you want more rights to sue.
o This difference in wording has huge consequences!

Cognitive Science is defined by the topic (mind), not by method!

- Experimental psychology
- Developmental psychology
- Computer science
- Linguistics
- Neuroscience & neuropsychology
- Philosophy

Why not cognitive scienceS?

- Because cognitive science is a coherent compilation of all of these sciences.

Syllabus:
- Many journal articles, including Intersubject synchronization of cortical activity during natural
vision and Invariant visual representation by single neurons in the human brain
- Book recommendation: Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid

Next time...
- Foundational assumptions
- Reflections on the unity of cognitive science
- Nature and nurture in the design of the mind