Developments In Cognitive Science Research Articles

Embodiment: A Brief Overview

One of the bewildering conceptions within the realm of cognitive science has been the perception of meaning and understanding, which has inadequately been approached by previous theories of cognition. Recently, there have been radical shifts in developments in cognitive science toward the theory of Embodiment. On the word of this newfangled standpoint, it is widely accepted that body plays a central role in meaning making. In this novel approach, making linguistic meanings which is closely related to our actions is precisely the point. Several investigations have endeavored to provide the estimates of embodiment by examining the effect of body movements on cognition. A considerable amount of literature has proved that the cognitive capacities are constructed and dependent on the bodily actions through the interaction with the external world.

The phenomenology of sunset at the Palace of the Jaguars, Teotihuacan

Although archaeoastronomically significant alignments throughout Mesoamerica are usually described solely in architectural terms (that is, as monumental aspects of calendric notation), in this article I present evidence (in the form of a case study of the Palace of the Jaguars, Teotihuacan) that alignments may have been utilized to engineer complex optical transformations of pictorial artifacts. To describe the interplay between light and color manifest in the structure's murals throughout the day, I utilize a virtual reconstruction of the structure. Drawing on recent developments in cognitive science, I explain how polychromatic assemblages could indeed appear to ‘come alive’.

Analysis of Image and Video Using Color, Texture and Shape Features for Object Identification

The recent developments in cognitive sciences and Artificial Intelligence has made possible the process of automation in object detection and recognition using various low level visual features used to represent a standard image of an object. Our approach uses analysing the methods used by most intelligent living entities, humans. Humans use the sense of sight and intuition to recognise objects. This paper highlights the methodologies that can be used to identify objects using details such as colour, texture and shape of an image to infer the object.

Does Empathy Have Any Place in Aquinas’s Account of Justice?

Recent developments in cognitive science have prompted philosophers to speculate about the importance of empathy, the ability to directly apprehend and take on the mental and emotional states of others, in understanding and being motivated by moral norms—particularly moral norms concerning other humans. In this paper, I investigate whether some kind of empathy is involved in Thomas Aquinas’s account of the virtue of justice, which he describes as essentially other-directed. I claim that a kind of empathy is involved in Aquinas’s notion of friendship and that this notion of friendship is related to justice as a virtue as its goal. Having the virtue of justice is geared towards establishing true friendship, at least in part. In so doing, it is directed towards establishing a sufficient groundwork for genuine empathy. Instances of genuine empathy, then, are approximations of this goal of the work of justice, even if they occur outside the context of a true friendship. Given this, I describe possible roles Aquinas might afford empathy and empathetic emotions in the context of cultivating the virtue of justice, including roles in motivation and knowledge.

Extended Translation

Consideration of current developments in cognitive science is indispensable when defining research agendas addressing cognitive aspects of translation. One such development is the recognition of the extended nature of human cognition: Cognition is not just an information manipulation process in the brain, it is contextualised action embedded in a body and increasingly mediated by technologies and situated in its socio-cultural environment. Parallel developments are found in neighbouring disciplines, such as sociology with its actor-network and activity theories. This paper examines these approaches, their shared methodological tenets (i.e., ethnographic field studies) and the implications of the situated cognition approach for describing the cognitive aspects of translation, using a translation management case study to discuss conceptual and methodological issues.

Cognitive Investigations: The Problems of Qualia and Style in the Contemporary Neuronovel

Recent developments in cognitive science have overturned the restrictions of behaviorism and have once again made consciousness a legitimate object of scientific investigation. New brain scanning technologies have introduced the possibility of mapping the neural correlates of consciousness, thereby offering a full, materialist account of the mind. This article argues that an emergent subgenre of contemporary fiction has both formally integrated and critically assessed these discourses of the mind. The “neuronovels” of Ian McEwan, David Lodge, and others have specifically addressed “the explanatory gap” between the third-person accounts of neuroscience and the first-person perspective of conscious experience—a gap that some philosophers of mind regard as an irreducible obstacle to any complete, scientific explanation of consciousness. Novels such as McEwan's Enduring Love (1998) and Lodge's Thinks … (2002) transform this problem of qualia into a formal problem of narrative style. Finally, this article shows that such conceptual transactions between cognitive science and contemporary literature move in both directions. While recent fiction has integrated the discourses and problems posed by brain science, neuroscientists have drawn upon the narrative techniques of experimental literature in order to present their evolving theories of consciousness.

Care and conversing in dialogical systems

This article promotes a point of view on human interaction in terms of dialogical systems. The approach draws on recent, so-called third wave, developments in cognitive science. After an introduction to three waves in cognitive science, and their counterparts in linguistics, the article is placed in a tradition that is ecological, embodied and distributed. Its specific take on human interaction pursues these perspectives by claiming that language can neither be reduced to social rules in the micro-sociological domain, nor to biological properties of the individual being. As an alternative to these two positions, a theory of dialogical systems is developed, on the basis of current thinking within the enactive program (e.g. De Jaegher and Di Paolo, 2007), the distributed language movement (e.g. Cowley, 2011b), and values-realizing theory (e.g. Hodges, 2009). Dialogical systems are systems of co-present human beings engaged in interactivity that bring forth situated behavioural coordination (or a communicative, structural coupling). Dialogical systems, however, have emergent properties irreducible to individual actions or microsocial norms. Among the emergent properties one find a tendency to establish and uphold equilibriums that balance between various, at times opposing, values and tensions. This approach is exemplified through an analysis of a real-life conversation between a mother and a health visitor.

Pragmatism, Neural Plasticity and Mind-Body Unity

Recent developments in cognitive science provide compelling leads that need to be interpreted and synthesized within the context of semiotic and biosemiotic principles. To this end, we examine the impact of the mind-body unity on the sorts of choices that an organism is predisposed to making from its Umwelt. In multicellular organisms with brains, the relationship that an organism has with its Umwelt impacts on neural plasticity, the functional specialisations that develop within the brain, and its behaviour. Clinical observations, such as those recorded by Norman Doidge, as well as historical observations from outside the field of semiotics (Plato, Aristotle, Hume) shed further light on this process, and serve to further substantiate our semiotic and biosemiotic paradigm. Our analysis develops a rather limited associationism (with reference to Peirce’s categories) into a more general and robust interpretation that is applicable to all mind-bodies, whether they be neurons, paramecia and amoebae, or humans, cats and dogs. Biosemiotics is a more universal semiotics that takes us beyond the confines of anthropocentrism, because it recognizes the role of the body in shaping Mind.

Cognitive adequacy in a dialogic Functional Discourse Grammar

Functional Discourse Grammar (FDG), as a theory of the organization of natural languages, seeks to attain pragmatic, typological and cognitive adequacy. The attempt to achieve cognitive adequacy has been fraught with problems stemming from the vagueness of the concept and the difficulty of adapting to trends in psycholinguistics. Specifically, while FDG has seen every utterance as an entirely novel creation by an individual language user, developments in cognitive science have emphasized the extent to which aspects of utterances are primed by earlier occurrences in the context of dialogue involving two or more interlocutors. It is possible to develop a dialogic view of FDG in which the Contextual Component is re-interpreted as an implicit common ground and as a conduit for the interactive alignment of grammatical processes. In such a view, morphosyntactic alternations are defined by their potential for mutual priming. The analysis of dialogue data shows that authentic linguistic expressions, examined in their discourse context, can be described as being determined either by priming or by functional factors, with several instances of dysfunctionality being attributed to the influence of priming.

Mathematical Model of Embodied Symbols: Cognition and Perceptual Symbol System

A mathematical model of perceptual symbol system is developed. This development requires new mathematical methods of dynamic logic (DL), which have overcome limitations of classical artificial intelligence and connectionist approaches. The paper discusses these past limitations, relates them to combinatorial complexity (exponential explosion) of algorithms in the past, and relates it further to the static nature of classical logic. DL is a process-logic; its salient property is evolution of vague representations into crisp. We first consider one aspect of PSS: situation learning from object perceptions. Next DL is related to PSS mechanisms of concepts, simulators, grounding, embodiment, productiveity, binding, recursion, and to the mechanisms relating embodied-grounded and amodal symbols. We discuss DL capability for modeling cognition on multiple levels of abstraction. PSS is extended toward interaction between cognition and language. Experimental predictions of the theory are discussed. They might influence experimental psychology and impact future theoretical developments in cognitive science, including knowledge representation, and mechanisms of interaction between perception, cognition, and language. All mathematical equations are also discussed conceptually, so mathematical understanding is not required. Experimental evidence for DL and PSS in brain imaging is discussed as well as future research directions.

Helping medical learners recognise and manage unconscious bias toward certain patient groups

For the last 30 years, developments in cognitive sciences have demonstrated that human behaviour, beliefs and attitudes are shaped by automatic and unconscious cognitive processes. Only recently has much attention been paid to how unconscious biases based on certain patient characteristics may: (i) result in behaviour that is preferential toward or against specific patients; (ii) influence treatment decisions, and (iii) adversely influence the patient-doctor relationship. Partly in response to accreditation requirements, medical educators are now exploring how they might help students and residents to develop awareness of their own potential biases and strategies to mitigate them. In this paper, we briefly review key cognition concepts and describe the limited published literature about educational strategies for addressing unconscious bias. We propose a developmental model to illustrate how individuals might move from absolute denial of unconscious bias to the integration of strategies to mitigate its influence on their interactions with patients and offer recommendations to educators and education researchers.

Introductory essay: Evolutionary science and the study of religion

In this article, we introduce the general rationale behind the evolutionary cognitive science of religion, answer some sensible humanistic objections to it and defend the promise of a ‘consilient’ approach to advance the academic study of religion.

Intentionality and Embodied Cognition

The theses of embodied and extended cognition are usually regarded as recherche doctrines, at odds with common sense. They are also, typically, regarded as theses that must be evaluated by way of their implications for the development of cognitive science. If they cohere with the likely trajectory of cognitive science they can be accepted. If they do not, they must be rejected. This paper argues against both these claims. At the conceptual heart of the theses of embodied and extended cognition is an analysis of intentionality as revealing activity, and the theses are mundane implications of this analysis. Moreover, since the analysis is not something that can be gleaned from cognitive science or philosophical reflections on cognitive science, the theses of embodied and extended cognition are not ones that can be adjudicated by appeals to what cognitive science does or is likely to do in the future. The theses of embodied and extended cognition are philosophical theses—not theses of cognitive science—and none the worse for that.

Leave no stone unturned

The developments in cognitive science after the information-processing paradigm are sketched out, indicating advances in psychology, linguistics, and anthropology. Cognitive translatology draws from these advances to adopt an encyclopedic view of meaning and an interpersonal (rather than interlinguistic or intercultural) view of translating, while rejecting two-phase and three-phase models of the translation process. A thorough, comprehensive revision of theoretical assumptions is claimed to be necessary to further the construction of cognitive translatology, and the necessity of this is illustrated with brief discussion of the notions of deverbalization, universal semantic representation, and competence. Relevance-theoretical approaches and the overlap between second-generation cognitive science and social-constructivism in translatology are also discussed.

Nostalgia, Entrepreneurship, and Redemption

Recent developments in cognitive science and linguistics provide strong evidence that understanding decision-making processes in higher education requires close attention to not only rational and consciously controlled dynamics but also those aspects that are less consciously controlled than previously assumed. When deciding to favor or reject higher education policies, people use prototypical ways of thinking, involving unconscious reaction and comprehension. This research uses Rosch’s and Lakoff’s notions of prototypes and Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis as the main tools for understanding the prototypes for the conceptual category institutions of higher education. The data for this study come from a sample of all the higher education editorials and opinion articles (1,000 pieces) published over 26 years in three influential U.S. newspapers. Three higher education prototypes are identified and their elements described: academic nostalgia (present but not dominant), educational entrepreneurship (dominant, both positive and negative), and redemptive educational–consumerism (emerging).

Applications in education and training: a force behind the development of cognitive science.

This paper reviews 30 years of progress in U.S. cognitive science research related to education and training, as seen from the perspective of a research manager who was personally involved in many of these developments.

Functional Homology and Functional Variation in Evolutionary Cognitive Science

Most cognitive scientists nowadays tend to think that at least some of the mind’s capacities are the product of biological evolution, yet important conceptual problems remain for all scientists in order to be able to speak coherently of mental or cognitive systems as having evolved naturally. Two of these important problems concern the articulation of adequate, interesting, and empirically useful concepts of homology and variation as applied to cognitive systems. However, systems in cognitive science are usually understood as functional systems of some sort. Thus, to be able to talk about functional systems being homologous requires having a solid, adequate, and empirically articulated concept of functional homology—and the same is true about functional variation. Here I construct an original concept of functional homology that, in my view, adequately systematizes a number of actual uses of the word “functional homology” in a variety of biological disciplines and in ethology. I also propose a number of criteria for the empirical application of the concept that are analogous to the criteria that are currently used in comparative biology, ethology, and (possibly) molecular developmental genetics. Then I construct a concept of functional variation on the basis of this concept of homology.

Anthropocentrism is not the first step in children’s reasoning about the natural world

What is the relation between human and nonhuman animals? As adults, we construe this relation flexibly, depending in part on the situation at hand. From a biological perspective, we acknowledge the status of humans as one species among many (as in Western science), but at the same time may adopt other perspectives, including an anthropocentric perspective in which human characteristics are attributed to nonhuman animals (as in fables and popular media). How do these perspectives develop? The predominant view in developmental cognitive science is that young children universally possess only one markedly anthropocentric vantage point, and must undergo fundamental conceptual change, overturning their initially human-centered framework before they can acquire a distinctly biological framework. Evidence from two experiments challenges this view. By developing a task that allows us to test children as young as 3 years of age, we are able to demonstrate that anthropocentrism is not the first developmental step in children's reasoning about the biological world. Although urban 5-year-olds adopt an anthropocentric perspective, replicating previous reports, 3-year-olds show no hint of anthropocentrism. This suggests a previously unexplored model of development: Anthropocentrism is not an initial step in conceptual development, but is instead an acquired perspective, one that emerges between 3 and 5 years of age in children raised in urban environments.

On the Initiation of World Neurosurgery

The development of cognitive science and neuroscience has stimulated the emergence of social science-based and philosophy-based neurosciences. A classification of the neurosciences is presented. The new neurosciences are viewed as ethnoneurologies, having as their common object the study of brain—in neurophysiological, neuroelectrical, neurochemical, and other functioning as related to mental level of experience and to structures, arrangements, and processes in the social world. This approach focuses not on how people perceive the brain, but rather on the uses they make of brain. Thus, the ethnoneurologies refer to a closely related family of interdisciplinary, neurocognitive fields of inquiry. The behavioral science based neurosciences—neurocommunications, neuroethology, neurolinguistics, and neuropsychology—contain within themselves topics, problems, and levels of analysis that are ethnoneurological, although not defined as ethnoneurologies. The social science based ethnoneurologies are neurosociology, neuroanthropology, neuropolitics, and neuroeconomics. The philosophy/humanities based ethnoneurologies include neurophilosophy, neuroaesthetics, neuroepistemology, neurophenomenology, and neuro-ontology. An ethnoneurological perspective provides a strategy for resolving the culture-and-cognition paradox, according to which (i) cultural differences are viewed as variations in the expression of universal human mentation, and (ii) such cultural differences reflect qualitatively different cognitive structures.

Is freedom of the will neutrally possible?

In this paper we are attempting in the context of recent developments in cognitive science to examine the viability of the Libet solution to the problem of the freedom of the will. We will be showing that this solution is still possible if refraining acts can be considered not only as different kinds of actions from performing acts, but also peculiar actions that have causal consequences without having a result component. It requires a very strong commitment to an odd model of action, which makes more plausible the Wegner idea that freedom of the will is to be explained away as an illusion, albeit an illusion that is helpful in establishing the authorship of actions.