Blackwell Companions to
Philosophy
A Companion to Cognitive Science
Edited by
WILLIAM BECHTEL and GEORGE GRAHAM
Advisory editors
David A. Balota Paul G. Chapin
Michael J. Friedlander Janet L. Kolodner
I BLACl<WELL Publish e r s
Copyright l Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1998
First published 1998
24681097531
Blackwell Publishers Inc. 3 50 Main Street Malden, Massachusetts 02148 USA
Blackwell Publishers Ltd 108 Cowley Road Oxford OX4 lJF UK
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A companion lo cognitive science I edited by William Bechtel and George Graham: advisory editors. David A. Balota ... [el al.].
p. cm. - (Blackwell companions lo philosophy: 13) Includes bibliographical references and indexes. ISBN 1-55786-542-6 (hardcover: alk. paper) 1. Cognitive science. I. Bechtel, William. Il. Graham, George,
1945-. UI. Balota. D. A. IV. Series. BF3 l l.C5 78 1998 l 53-dc21 97-38757
CIP
British LibranJ Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Typeset in 10 on 12 pt Photina by. Grap?icrafi. Typesetters Limited, Hong Kong Pnnted m Great Britain by T.J. International, Padstow. Cornwall
This book is printed on acid-free paper
Contents
List of contributors and website notice
Preface
Acknowledgments
PART I: THE LIFE OF COGNITIVE SCIENCE WILLIAM BECHTEL, ADELE ABRAHAMSEN, AND GEORGE GRAHAM
PART II: AREAS OF STUDY IN COGNITIVE SCIENCE
I Analogy DEDRE GENTNER
2 Animal cognition HERBERT L. ROITBLAT
3 Attention A. H. C. VAN DER HEIJDEN
4 Brain mapping JENNIFER MUNDALE
5 Cognitive anthropology CHARLES W. NUCKOLLS
6 Cognitive and linguistic development ADELE ABRAHAMSEN
7 Conceptual change NANCY J. NERSESSIAN
8 Conceptual organization DOUGLAS MEDIN AND SANDRA R . WAXMAN
9 Consciousness OWEN FLANAGAN
10 Decision making J. PRANK YATES AND PAUL A. ESTIN
II Emotions PAUL E. GRIFFITHS
ix
xiii
xvii
1
105
107
114
121
129
140
146
157
167
176
186
197
v
CONTE NTS
12 Imagery and spatial representation 204
RITA E. ANDERSON
13 Language evolution and neuromechanisms 212 TERRENCE W. DEACON
14 Language processing 226 KATHRYN BOCK AND SUSAN M. GARNSEY
15 Linguistic theory 235 D. TERENCE LANGENDOEN
16 Machine learning 245 PAUL THAGARD
17 Memory 250 HENRY L. ROEDIGER 111 AND LYN M. GOFF
18 Perception 265 CEES VAN LEEUWEN
19 Perception: color 282 AUSTEN CLARK
20 Problem solving 289 KEVIN DUNBAR
21 Reasoning 299 LANCE J. RIPS
22 Social cognition 306 ALAN J. LAMBERT ANO AL ISON L. CHASTEEN
23 Unconscious intelligence 314 RHIANON ALLEN AND ARTHUR S. REBER
24 Understanding texts 324 ART GRAESSER AND PAM T I PPING
25 Word meaning 331 BARBARA C. MALT
PART ID: METHODOLOGIES OF COGNITIVE SCIENCE 339
26 Artificial intelligence 341 RON SUN
27 Behavioral experimentation 352 ALEXANDER POLLATSEK AND KEITH RAYNER
28 Cognitive ethology 371 MARC BEKOFF
29 Deficits and pathologies 380 CHRI STOPHER D. FRITH
vi
30 Ethnomethodology BARRY SA FERSTEIN
31 Functional analysis BRIAN MACWHINNEY
32 Neuroimaging RANDY L. BUCKNER AND STEVEN E. PETERSEN
33 Protocol analysis K. ANDERS ERICSSON
34 Single neuron electrophysiology B. E. STEIN, M. T. WALLACE, AND T. R. STANFORD
3 5 Structural analysis ROBERT FRANK
PART IV: STANCES IN COGNITIVE SCIENCE
36 Case-based reasoning DAVID B. LEAKE
3 7 Cognitive linguistics MICHAEL TOMASELLO
3 8 Connectionism, artificial life, and dynamical systems JEFFREY L. ELMAN
39 Embodied, situated, and distributed cognition ANDY CLARK
40 Mediated action JAMES V. WERTSCH
41 Neurobiological modeling P. READ MONTAGUE AND PETER DAYAN
42 Production systems CHRISTIAN D. SCHUNN AND DAVID KLAHR
PART V: CONTROVERSIES IN COGNITIVE SCIENCE
43 The binding problem VALERIE GRAY HARDCASTLE
44 Heuristics and satisficing ROBERT C. RICHARDSON
45 Innate knowledge BARBARA LANDAU
46 Innateness and emergentism ELIZABETH BATES, JEFFREY L. ELMAN, MARK H. JOHNSON,
ANNETTE KARMILOFF-SMITH, DOMENICO PARISI,
AND KIM PLUNKETT
CONTENTS
391
402
413
425
433
450
463
465
477
488
506
518
526
542
553
555
566
576
590
vii
CONTENTS
47 Intentionality GILBERT HARMA N
48 Levels of explanation and cognitive architectures ROBERT N. MCCAU LEY
49 Modularity IRENE APPELBAUM
50 Representation and computation ROBERT S. STUFPLEBEAM
51 Representations DORRIT BILLMAN
52 Rules TERENCE HORGAN AND JOHN TIENSON
53 Stage theories refuted DONALD G. MACKAY
PART VI: COGNITIVE SCffiNCE IN THE REAL WORLD
54
55
56
57
58
59
Education JOHN T. BRUER
Ethics MARK L. JOH NSON
Everyday life environments ALEX KIRLIK
Institutions and economics DOUGLASS C. NORTH
Legal reasoning EDWI NA L. RISSLAND
Mental retardation NORMAN W. BRAY, KEVIN D. REILLY, LISA F. H UFFMAN,
LISA A. GR UPE, MARK F. VILLA , KATHRYN L. FLETCHER,
AND VIVEK ANUMOLU
60 Science WILLIAM F. BREWER AND PUNYASH LOKE MISHRA
602
611
625
636
649
660
671
679
681
691
702
713
722
734
744
Selective biographies of major contributors to cognitive science 750 WILLIAM BECHTEL AND TADEUSZ ZAWIDZKI
Author index 7 7 7
Subject index 787
viii
Contributors
Adele Abrahamsen, Linguistic Studies Program and Department of Psychology, Washington University in St Louis
Rhianon Allen, Department of Psychology, Long Island University
Rita E. Anderson, Department of Psychology, Memorial University of Newfoundland
Vivek Anumolu, CompuWare, Inc., Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Irene Appelbaum, Department of Philosophy, University of Montana
Elizabeth Bates, Center for Research in Language, University of California at San Diego
William Bechtel. Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology Program and Department of Philosophy, Washington University in St Louis
Marc Bekoff, Department of Environmental. Population. and Organismic Biology, University of Colorado
Dorrit Billman, School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology
Kathryn Bock, Department of Psychology, University ofllllnois at Urbana-Champaign
Norman W. Bray, Department of Psychology, University of Alabama at Birmingham
William F. Brewer, Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign
John T. Bruer, James S. McDonnell Foundation, St Louis
Randy L. Buckner, Department of Psychology, Washington University in St Louis
Alison L. Chasteen, Department of Psychology, Washington University in St Louis
Andy Clark. Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology Program and Department of Philosophy, Washington University in St Louis
Austen Clark. Department of Philosophy, University of Connecticut
Peter Dayan, Department of Brain and Cognitive Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Terrence W. Deacon, Department of Anthropology, Boston University
Kevin Dunbar, Department of Psychology, McGill University
Jeffrey L. Elman, Department of Cognitive Science, University of California at San Diego
ix
CONTRIBUTORS
K. Anders Ericsson, Department of Psychology. Florida State University
Paul A. Estin, Department of Psychology. University of Michigan
Owen Flanagan, Department of Philosophy, Duke University
Kathryn L. Fletcher, Department of Psychology. University of Miami
Robert Frank. Department of Cognitive Science, Johns Hopkins University
Christopher D. Frith, Wellcome Department of Cognitive Neurology. Institute of
Neurology, London
Susan M. Garnsey. Department of Psychology, University of Illinois al Urbana
Champaign
Dedre Gentner, Department of Psychology, Northwestern University
Lyn M. Goff, Department of Psychology, Washington University in St Louis
Art Graesser. Department of Psychology, University of Memphis
George Graham, Department of Philosophy, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Paul E. Grlffiths, Department of Philosophy, Otago University
Lisa A. Grupe, Department of Psychology, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Valerie Gray Hardcastle, Department of Philosophy, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and Slate University
Gilbert Harman, Department of Philosophy, Princeton University
Terence Horgan, Department of Philosophy, University of Memphis
Lisa F. HofJman, Department of Psychology, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Mark H. Johnson, MRC Cognitive Development Unit, London
Mark L. Johnson. Department of Philosophy, University of Oregon
Annette KarmilofT-Smith, MRC Cognitive Development Unit, London
Alex Kirllk, Center for Human-Machine Systems Research, Georgia Institute of Technology
David Klahr, Department of Psychology, Carnegie-Mellon University
Alan J. Lambert, Department of Psychology, Washington University in St Louis
Barbara Landau, Department of Psychology. University of Delaware
D. Terence Langendoen, Department of Linguistics, University of Arizona
David B. Leake, Computer Science Department, lndiana University
Donald G. MacKay, Department of Psychology, University of California at Los Angeles
Brian MacWhinney, Department of Psychology, Carnegie-Mellon University
Robert N. McCauley, Department of Philosophy, Emory University
x
CONTRIBUTORS
Barbara C. Malt, Department of Psychology, Lehigh University
Douglas Medin, Department of Psychology, Northwestern University
Punyashloke Mishra, Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign
P. Read Montague, Division of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine
Jennifer Mondale, Department of Philosophy, Hartwick College
Nancy J. Nersessian, Cognitive Science Program, Georgia Institute of Technology
Douglass C. North, Department of Economics, Washington University in St Louis
Charles W. Nuckolls, Department of Anthropology, Emory University
Domenico Parisi, Institute of Psychology, National Research Council, Rome, Italy
Steven E. Petersen, Department of Neurology, Washington University Medical School
Kim Plunkett, Department of Experimental Psychology, Oxford University
Alexander Pollatsek. Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Keith Rayner, Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Arthur S. Reber, Department of Psychology, Brooklyn College, City University of New York
Kevin D. Reilly, Department of Computer and Information Science, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Robert C. Richardson, Department of Philosophy, University of Cincinnati
Lance J. Rips, Department of Psychology, Northwestern University
Edwina L. Rissland, Department of Computer Science, University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Henry L. Roediger ID, Department of Psychology, Washington University in St Louis
Herbert L. Roitblat, Department of Psychology, University of Ha wail
Barry Saferstein, Communication Program, California State University, San Marcos
Christian D. Schunn, Department of Psychology, Carnegie-Mellon University
T. R. Stanford, Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, Bowman Gray School of Medicine of Wake Forest University
B. E. Stein, Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, Bowman Gray School of Medicine of Wake Forest University
Robert S. Stufflebeam, Department of Philosophy and Religion, University of Tulsa
Ron Sun, Department of Computer Science, University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa
Paul Thagard, Departments of Philosophy and Computer Science, University of Waterloo
xi
CONTRIBUTORS
John Tienson, Department of Philosophy, University of Memphis
Pam Tipping, Department of Psychology. University of Memphis
Michael Tomasello, Department of Psychology, Emory University
A. H. C. van der Heijden, Department of Psychology, Leiden University
Cees van Leeuwen, Faculty of Psychology, University of Amsterdam
Mark F. Villa, Department of Computer and Information Science, University of Alabama at Birmingham
M. T. Wallace, Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, Bowman Gray School of Medicine of Wake Forest University
Sandra R. Waxman, Department of Psychology, Northwestern University
James V. Wertsch, Department of Education, Washington University in St Louis
J. Frank Yates, Department of Psychology, University of Michigan
Tadeusz Zawidzki, Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology Program, Washington University in St Louis
Website notice
A website has been established for this volume at http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/ -wbechtel/companion/. At the time of publication it will include a description of the volume, the address of each contributor, and a supplement to the biographical section at the end of the volume. Comments, discussion, and errata received by the editors may also be posted; their addresses are available on the website.
xii
Preface
You have a companion in your hands - a companion of a special sort. It is a guide to one of the most important scientific developments of the end of the twentieth century: multidisciplinary cognitive science.
The expression cognitive science is used to describe a broadly integrated class of approaches to the study of mental activities and processes and of cognition in particular. Cognitive science is broad not just in the sense of encompassing disciplines as varied as neuroscience. cognitive psychology, philosophy, linguistics, computer science, and anthropology, but also in the sense that cognitive scientists tend to adopt certain basic, general assumptions about mind and intelligent thought and behavior. These include assumptions that the mind is (1) an information processing system, (2) a representational device, and (3) (in some sense) a computer.
As the Companion reveals, various interpretations of, as well as relations among, the above assumptions exist within cognitive science. Indeed, the entire set is not shared by all who dub themselves cognitive scientists. Partly because of diverse interpretations and other differences, cognitive science has generated vigorous dialogues concerning the nature of mental activities and processes, as well as over the nature of science and the structure of disciplines.
What makes this a Companion to cognitive science?
What makes the book a companion to cognitive science is that it presents everything needed to acquire working familiarity with ..:ognitive science: its origins, central research areas and methodologies, main achievements. intellectual stances and controversies, and likely future developments. It should serve as a reference book, classroom text, and resource guide. It should be readable by nonacademics and nonspecialists, graduate and undergraduate students taking first courses in cognitive science. and also specialists in disciplines which are part of cognitive science but who wish an overview of topics outside their own specialty.
Although cognitive science has existed as a multidisciplinary research endeavor for a couple of decades, its character and content have not been static, and are indeed undergoing fundamental changes at present. This volume is organized so as to describe not only the past and present of cognitive science. but future problems for inquiry and new approaches to conceptualizing cognitive phenomena, including perspectives from neuroscience and from social and ecological studies. Moreover, the volume includes articles that examine not just the central inquiries of cognitive science but real-world applications of work that has been done in cognitive science.
xiii
PREFACE
Following each article is a list of references. Some (indicated by asterisks) are recom-
d d eadings that were selected to take the reader to the next level of understand-men e r d . h art' 1 Th ing of the topics covered in the article. The others are works cite m l e 1c e. e number of citations has been minimized so as to allocate the greatest amount of space
to exposition.
The organization of the Companion
The companion is organized in six parts. What are those parts? And what are they
designed to do? . Part I is an overview and anticipation of the whole of cognitive science. It describes
the origins of contemporary cognitive science, depicts the contributions of different disciplines to cognitive science, explains why and how cognitive science is transforming the understanding of mind and behavior, discusses institutional structures that have developed to facilitate cognitive science research, and attempts to provide a clear. readable introduction to the other parts and issues of the Companion. Coupling metaphor to exposition, Part I conceives of cognitive science as a developing organism with a biography of its own. Yesterday's birth becomes today's development and tomorrow's remembered achievement; there are family gatherings, social tensions, lines of ancestral inOuence, anxieties over self-definition, and aspirations for the future. Part I is entitled "The Life of Cognitive Science."
Part II is devoted to areas of study within cognitive science. A number of different phenomena comprise mental activities and processes. These provide areas of study for investigators within cognitive science - to name just a few: attention, consciousness. imagery, language, memory, perception, and reasoning. It is largely as a result of focusing on these common phenomena that cognilive scientists, though coming from different disciplines and using different research methods, interact with each other. The articles in Part II attempt to characterize the problems that arise in the various areas of study and some of the outstanding discoveries that have been made. The articles are intended to offer grounding in actual research accomplishments in cognitive science that will be useful in taking up more theoretical matters or attempts to relate work in cognitive science to more real-world human endeavors.
One reason why cognitive science is such a dynamic research field is that researchers bring a broad range of research methodologies to bear on phenomena of common interest. Typically these research methods develop primarily in one cognitive science discipline, but they are borrowed and often modified by those in other disciplines. Thus t~er.e i.s not a rigi~ con.nection between a specific research methodology and a given d1sc1pline. The articles m Part III. on methodologies of cognitive science, indicate the range of methodologies within cognitive science .
. Also adding to lhe vitality of cognitive science is the fact that different cognitive science researchers adopt different stances on cognitive phenomena. These stances shape r~searchers' inquiries by directing their attention to particular questions and concepltons of what count as answers to those questions. A stance is an overall perspective on what should be studied and by what methods, and how explanations should be fr.a~ed. A~ ~t~ methodologies, frequently a stance is embraced first in one of the part1c1pant dis~1pl~es of cognitive science and then migrates to inOuence researchers In other conlnbuting disciplines. The articles in Part IV characterize the different
xiv
PREFACE
stances and exhibit how advocates of each go about the practice of cognitive science. Although those who adopt different stances may frequently engage in dialogue, the differences between stances do not readily or commonly lend themselves to empirical resolution or inquiry, and thus the discussions tend to settle into ongoing debates. Frequently those who adopt one stance are led to investigate particular problems that can be answered within the perspective of that stance, while those who adopt a different stance will be directed to different problems.
In addition to broad theoretical stances, cognitive science inquiry is characterized by a number of controversies that reach across various areas of study. These are examined in Part V, on controversies. They concern particular features of the cognitive system or ways of examining it. Unlike stances, the controversies are often objects of empirical investigation. Empirical evidence to date has not resolved these controversies, but has regularly forced changes in positions.
While cognitive scientists typically have construed their work as part of basic science, some have anticipated the consequences which their investigations may have for other aspects of human life. Increasingly, cognitive scientists devote themselves more explicitly to relating their inquiries to those other areas. The focus on real-world problems is, in turn, transforming some of the basic science inquiries. The articles in Part VI on cognitive science in the real world discuss both current endeavors relating cognitive science to other human pursuits and the potential for further developments in these directions.
What is different about this book?
Many books describe limited aspects of cognitive science or take approaches to cognitive science which reflect emphases on certain disciplines or assumptions rather than others. Readers familiar with other books on cognitive science may want to know what is different about this Companion.
The most obvious difference is its forward-looking organization. The excitement -and the anxiety - of cognitive science is that it reaches into the twenty-first century with unsettled self-definition. Much editorial attention has been paid, therefore, into making this book anticipatory of future developments of cognitive science in neuroscience, socioculturally embedded cognition, the emotions, and animal modeling, and into showing that cognitive science is not made of disciplinary steel. Its character is open to theoretical refinement and empirical revision.
Much attention has also been paid to designing a book that is as comprehensive as possible in its depiction of cognitive science, but also as reader-accessible and learnerfriendly as a guide to a science under construction can be. It is meant to provide a coherent view of a broad scientific terrain, offering different points of entry for different sorts of readers to aspects of cognitive science.
How to read this book
The Companion's six parts serve distinct if related purposes. They are assembled so that they may be read independently of one another. They contain, in effect, self-contained essays on a variety of topics in cognitive science, arranged alphabetically by topic and with frequent cross-references. Thus someone who wants to learn about connectionism,
xv
PREFACE
artificial life and dynamical systems can read chapter 38 in Part I\ (Stances) as a selfenclosed ac~ount of those topics. When read together with the .o~hcr essays Ill :ar~~Vh the reader may compare and contrast different stances on cognitive p~enomcna w . ~ have shaped cognitive scientific inquiry. Similar reading and learnmg opportumt1es
apply to the other five parts. . , , , . re or When all six parts of the Companion are read m order, however. they. t.cll a ~o
less unified story of cognitive science. The importance of bcco.ming fan:uha~ :-v•th cognitive science through a unified story should not be underestimated. 1 here ~s. underd standably. among students and nonpractitioners of cognitive science. a widespre~ anxiety about learning cognitive science. There is so much literature. so mu~h activity, so many conferences, so many people callin.g themsel~es cognitive s_cie~~1sts. tha~ initiation into the field can feel more like a lurchmg or leaping than an acqumng an it is easy lo slip into a shadow unllluminated by what is truly important. A good companion lo cognitive science tells a directed tale; it keeps light aimed on main themes. ideas. and issues.
Suggestions for how to teach from this book
Some readers will become acquainted with this book in the classroom: some will teac~ from it. Teachers may fmd the organization of the Companion useful in class or serrunar instruction.
ln particular, suppose you are teaching an introduction to cognitive science. How may this book be used as a text? You might use Part I. The Life of Cognitive Science, to organize the course across most of the semester. periodically taking excursions into other parts of the book by following some of the cross-references to areas. methodologies. and stances and examining various controversies and applications. Some of the suggested readings at the ends of articles might be selected for class use as well.
Alternatively, you may be teaching a thematically focused course from a broad. cognitive science perspective. In that case you would pick and choose segments of the book that address your theme, and you might also make heavy use of the suggested readings. A course on cognitive neuroscience or mind/brain, for example. may begin with the overview of cognitive science. paying special attention to the role of neuroscience within the evolution of cognitive science, and then consider such topics as brain mapping and language evolution and neuromechanisms in Part II, neuroimaging. single neuron electrophysiology, and deficits and pathologies in Part III. neurobiological modeling and perhaps one or two other articles in Part IV. The course might end with the controversies on binding, innateness. modularity, and levels and cognitive architectures in Part V .
. ~ third route through the book is to emphasize a particular cognitive science discipline. A philosophy class, for example, might begin with the historical perspective provided in section 2.6 of Part I. Getting a Philosophy. Philosophical concerns are prominent in Part V (Controversies). and also make some appearances in Part IV (Stanc~s). ~here are articles on such topics as conceptual change, consciousness. and rea.sonmg 10 ~art ~ and ethics in Part VI. Finally. an instructor might use some of the articles. especially m Part Ill, as material for addressing issues in philosophy of science.
William Bechtel and George Graham
xvi