View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE QUARTERLY REVIEW No.14 / January 2005 1 Cognitive Science as Science of the Mind KAYOKO ISHII Life Science and Medical Research Unit processes to establish new solutions to such 1 Introduction issues. The general history of cognitive science and Of the various means of studying the mind, its potential industrial applications have already cognitive science and neuroscience both explain been reported by Watari[1]. With this in mind, this the mind of the individual through her/his report summarizes the development of cognitive physical conditions including those of the brain. science through interdisciplinary interaction and Cognitive science, in particular, examines mental discusses its potential to supply knowledge of the aspects as ‘software’ to acquire, modify, maintain mental functions of human beings and to provide and utilise information. It aims to elucidate the solutions to mental and social issues. mechanisms concerning thought, linguistic capacity, learning, consciousness, the concept of 2 The formation of the self as distinguished from others, evaluation, cognitive science and communication with others. In the West, cognitive science has appeared 2-1 Constituent areas as a continuum from Greek philosophy as a When the U.S. Cognitive Science Society was science of the mind, a refutation of Cartesian founded in 1979, cognitive science was defined mind-body dualism, a psychology split from as “a multidisciplinary field embracing artificial philosophy as a positive discipline, a backlash intelligence, psychology and linguistics”[2]. As against behaviorism and the establishment of represented by the theme of the first conference, cognitive psychology under the influence of “knowledge, internal and logical representations, computational theory. Meanwhile, Japan has symbolic information processing, functionalism”, had no mind-body dualism exerting extensive, the main early interests were topics related to long-lasting influence such as Descartes’ theory. computer science[3]. Later, emphasis was also Instead, it has long been thought that the mind placed on the biological brain as an indispensable and body are inseparable. Traditionally, the entity, or actual experiences and knowledge as an Japanese were proficient in handling ambiguous essential part of cognitive function. Researchers ideas and non-verbal thoughts, and in guessing from various disciplines such as computer science the mental states of others. In other words, the (or information technology (IT)), psychology, resources obtained through cognitive science linguistics, neuroscience, philosophy, education, have already been applied in Japan. However, sociology and anthropology, take part in research without the custom of consciously analysing one’s in cognitive science (Table 1). The Japanese own thought processes and explicitly describing Cognitive Science Society was established in them, Japan now finds the challenge of dealing 1983, with membership of around 1,500 as of with the loss of traditional social structures over 2004 (Table 2)[4]. Researchers in brain science the last few decades, as well as the recent demand and neuroscience are not obvious in the society for the promotion of science, considerable. It but rather participate in the Japanese Society is necessary to understand one’s own thought of Cognitive Neuroscience, where they interact 13 SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY TRENDS QUARTERLY REVIEW No.14 / January 2005 Table 1 : Constituent disciplines defined by cognitive science societies in various countries Computer science Year of foundation Year Cognitive science Cognitive Neuroscience Anthropology Ergonomics Psychology Philosophy Linguistics Education Sociology Logic AISB (UK) 1964 ○ CSS (USA) 1977 ○ ○ ○ 1984* ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ 1997* ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ARCo (France) 1981 ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ JCSS (Japan) 1983 ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ESSCS (Europe) 1983 ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ KSCS (South Korea) 1987 ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ GK (Germany) 1994 ○ *: Turning point AISB: the Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and the Simulation of Behaviour CSS: Cognitive Science Society ARCo: Association pour la Recherche Cognitive JCSS: the Japanese Cognitive Science Society ESSCS: the European Society for the Study of Cognitive System KSCS: the Korean Society for Cognitive Science GK: Gesellschaft für Kognitionswissenschaft Table 2 : Number of members of cognitive science among relatively close subdisciplines such as societies in various countries neuropsychology, neurophysiology, neuroscience, Approximate membership brain imaging, education, psychology, AISB in the U.K. 500 neurosurgery, neurology and psychiatry. CSS in the U.S. 1100 ARCo in France 350 2-2 Benefits of multidisciplinarity JCSS in Japan 1500 In many countries, societies for cognitive KSCS in South Korea 500 science have defined themselves as multidisciplinary since their foundation, and two decades hence, they continue to emphasize decreasing, while the number of psychologists their multidisciplinary nature. The reason that and linguists is increasing. Focusing on the first cognitive science is still considered to be a authors of the papers published in the Journal multidisciplinary field is due to the change of its of Cognitive Science and their institutions, constituent disciplines over time (Table 1) and the proportion of researchers in psychology the influx of human resources from different and IT was 33% and 41% (1977-1981), 48% and disciplines through educational and research 21% (1996-1997) and 65% and 18% (2002), institutions. Therefore, the contribution of the respectively [2 ]. In terms of methodology, methodology or expertise of each discipline in information processing, which analyses cognitive science changes, and so do the contents human cognition by analogy with functions of academic output in the field of cognitive of the computer, has long been mainstream. science. However, with the growth of situation theory, Currently, more than half of the researchers emphasizing context-dependent cognition, or in the cognitive science field belong to one of the socio-cultural approach from sociological two domains, namely, psychology or IT. In many and cultural perspectives, use of the descriptive countries, the number of researchers in IT is method based on on-site data has also increased 14 15 SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY TRENDS QUARTERLY REVIEW No.14 / January 2005 Figure 1 : Percentage of first authors of articles published in the Journal of Cognitive Science with given departmental affiliations Source: Based on the report by Schunn, Crowley & Okada, (1998)[2]. The latest data (’96-’97, 2002) is also shown for reference. in the last decade. Corresponding to the individuals to groups of individuals (Figure 2). increasing participation of neuroscientists, the Cognitive science analyzes mental software from physiological activity of the brain has also been a macroscopic standpoint and therefore targets actively considered in recent years. The rise individuals and more global entities. Meanwhile, of these new approaches and methodologies neuroscience, a life science, analyzes mental is also reflected in the research subjects hardware from a microscopic standpoint and themselves. Since its foundation, the main deals with molecules (such as neurotransmitters subjects of cognitive science were the processes and neuron-specific gene expression), cells and of thought, reasoning and memorisation in the electrophysiological signal transduction, etc. individual. Recently, however, research has been conducted on interpersonal perception, 3-2 Is psychology literature? collaborative cognition and thought processes Because psychology targets macroscopic within groups. Moreover, there is increasing subjects such as individuals or society and often demand for research results to be more socially employs descriptive approaches, researchers applicable. When journals accept articles for from other empirical disciplines working at the publication, researchers from different disciplines microscopic level often perceive psychology are employed to conduct peer review. This helps as lacking the strictness or rationality required to avoid articles focusing only on traditional in the natural sciences. Although psychology disciplines that are preoccupied with academic originally split from philosophy, aiming to be interests, and favours articles compatible with an empirical discipline, certain schools in this various disciplines as well as with society. domain indeed created their own speculative terms and conceptual systems that could only be understood by people within the same 3 Methodologies school and that could not be verified. Cognitive in cognitive science psychology deals with the cognitive process that 3-1 Hierarchical structure of takes place within the bodies of human subjects science of the mind or experimental animals, which are practically The functions of the human mind involve ‘black boxes’. Therefore, researchers have coped various phenomena over different levels, from with this difficulty by enhancing the strictness molecules, cells, neural networks, brains, or rationality of experimental constraints 14 15 SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY TRENDS QUARTERLY REVIEW No.14 / January 2005 Figure 2 : Hierarchy of phenomena concerning the mind The constituent disciplines of cognitive science, cognitive sociology and cognitive anthropology place relatively strong emphasis on the analysis of society, while cognitive psychology and IT place relatively strong emphasis on the analysis of individuals.