cognitive science

Examples of cognitive science in the following topics:

• History of Cognition

  • The word "cognition" is the closest scientific synonym for thinking.
  • Some of the most important figures in the study of cognition are:
  • The study of human cognition began over two thousand years ago.
  • These processes can be analyzed through the lenses of many different fields: linguistics, anesthesia, neuroscience, education, philosophy, biology, computer science, and of course, psychology, to name a few.
  • These numerous approaches to the analysis of cognition are synthesized in the relatively new field of cognitive science, the interdisciplinary study of mental processes and functions.

• The Behavioral-Science Approach

  • Behavioral science uses research and the scientific method to determine and understand behavior in the workplace.
  • Behavioral science draws from a number of different fields and theories, primarily those of psychology, social neuroscience, and cognitive science.
  • This field deals with the processing of stimuli from the social environment by cognitive entities in order to engage in decision making, social judgment, and social perception.
  • Behavioral sciences also include relational sciences that deal with relationships, interaction, communication networks, associations, and relational strategies or dynamics between organisms or cognitive entities in a social system.
  • The behavioral-science approach and the myriad of fields it encompasses is the most common study of management science today.

• Introduction

  • Emerging from anthropology, sociology, and cognitive science, situated cognition theory represents a major shift in learning theory from traditional psychological views of learning as mechanistic and individualistic, and moves toward perspectives of learning as emergent and social (Greeno, 1998; Lave & Wenger, 1991; Salomon, 1996).
  • Brown, Collins, and Duguid (1989) are often credited with developing situated cognition or situated learning theory.
  • Cognitive apprenticeship practices are practical educational approaches that reflect a situated perspective by seeking to contextualize learning (Brown et al., 1989).
  • Regarded as leaders in the situated cognition movement, Lave and Wenger (1991), describe learning as an integral part of generative social practice in the lived-in world (p. 35).
  • Dynamic communities of practice are seen as a critical element of situated cognition theory's sociological view of learning (Lave & Wenger, 1991).

• Social Cognition

  • Social cognition, like general cognition, uses schemas to help people form judgments and conclusions about the world.
  • Social cognition is a specific approach of social psychology (the area of psychology that studies how people's thoughts and behaviors are influenced by the presence of others) that uses the methods of cognitive science.
  • Similarly, a notable theory of social cognition is social-schema theory.
  • Two cognitive processes that increase the accessibility of schemas are salience and priming.
  • Studies have found that culture influences social cognition in other ways too.

• References

  • Cognitive Psychology and Instruction.
  • Effecting changes in cognitive structures among physics students.
  • Pines (Eds.), Cognitive Structure and Conceptual Change (pp. 163-188).
  • Cognitive aspects of learning and teaching science.
  • Hamilton (Eds.), Philosophy of Science, Cognitive Psychology, and Educational Theory and Practice (pp. 147-176).

• Research on Cognitive Tools

  • The study involved the scalability and use of computers as cognitive tools.
  • The project was funded by the National Science Foundation, and showed that while incorporating technological tools in small, highly refined study groups created a heuristic, implementing reform on a large scale is more difficult.
  • The Internet was found to be the most baffling cognitive tool.
  • Gilbert's research put in this perspective, "enhancing cognitive powers' can be interpreted in multiple ways, and affect what one considers a cognitive tool.
  • In this context we can see examples of past cognitive tools that have been looked at from two perspectives.

• Cognitive Learning and Sociobiology

  • Cognitive learning relies on cognitive processes such as reasoning and abstract thinking; it is much more efficient than conditioning.
  • In the reverse scenario, conditioning cannot help someone learn about cognition.
  • Sociobiology is an interdisciplinary science originally popularized by social insect researcher E.O.
  • Wilson defined the science as "the extension of population biology and evolutionary theory to social organization."
  • This science is controversial; some have criticized the approach for ignoring the environmental effects on behavior.

• Additional Resources

  • How Piaget helped people accept the idea that children's cognitive behavior is intrinsically rather than extrinsically motivated
  • Psychological Science, 7(4), 211-215.
  • The authors' main focus is to summarize the influence of Piaget's ideas regarding children's cognitive development and the ways in which Piaget influenced future directions of research and theory in the field of cognitive development.
  • Second, Siegler and Ellis analyze Piaget's stages of cognitive development with regard to essentialism.
  • Recent research has discovered connections between cognitive variability and cognitive change and despite Piaget's proclivity for developmental stage theory he understood the importance of cognitive conflict in change.

• Cognitive Psychology

  • "Cognition" refers to thinking and memory processes, and "cognitive development" refers to long-term changes in these processes.
  • Major areas of research in cognitive psychology include perception, memory, categorization, knowledge representation, numerical cognition, language, and thinking.
  • Though there are examples of cognitive approaches from earlier researchers, cognitive psychology really developed as a subfield within psychology in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
  • The development of the field was heavily influenced by contemporary advancements in technology and computer science.
  • Piaget is best known for his stage theory of cognitive development.

• General Perspectives of Social Constructivism on Learning

  • Cognitive tools perspective: Cognitive tools perspective focuses on the learning of cognitive skills and strategies.
  • Students engage in those social learning activities that involve hands-on project-based methods and utilization of discipline-based cognitive tools (Gredler, 1997; Prawat & Folden, 1994).
  • Idea-based social constructivism: Idea-based social constructivism sets education's priority on important concepts in the various disciplines (e.g. part-whole relations in mathematics, photosynthesis in science, and point of view in literature, Gredler, 1997, p.59; Prawat, 1995; Prawat & Folden, 1994).
  • Transactional or situated cognitive perspectives: This perspective focuses on the relationship between the people and their environment.