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==Scope== Cognitive science is a large field, and covers a wide array of topics on cognition. However, it should be recognized that cognitive science has not always been equally concerned with every topic that might bear relevance to the nature and operation of minds. Classical cognitivists have largely de-emphasized or avoided social and cultural factors, embodiment, emotion, consciousness, [[animal cognition]], and [[comparative psychology|comparative]] and [[evolutionary psychology|evolutionary]] psychologies. However, with the decline of [[behaviorism]], internal states such as affects and emotions, as well as awareness and covert attention became approachable again. For example, situated and [[embodied cognition]] theories take into account the current state of the environment as well as the role of the body in cognition. With the newfound emphasis on information processing, observable behavior was no longer the hallmark of psychological theory, but the modeling or recording of mental states.{{cn|date=September 2024}} Below are some of the main topics that cognitive science is concerned with; see [[List of cognitive science topics]] for a more exhaustive list. ===Artificial intelligence=== {{Main|Artificial intelligence|Outline of artificial intelligence}} Artificial intelligence (AI) involves the study of cognitive phenomena in machines. One of the practical goals of AI is to implement aspects of human intelligence in computers. Computers are also widely used as a tool with which to study cognitive phenomena. [[Computational modeling]] uses simulations to study how human intelligence may be structured.<ref>Sun, Ron (ed.) (2008). The Cambridge Handbook of Computational Psychology. Cambridge University Press, New York.</ref> (See {{section link||Computational modeling}}.) There is some debate in the field as to whether the mind is best viewed as a huge array of small but individually feeble elements (i.e. neurons), or as a collection of higher-level structures such as symbols, schemes, plans, and rules. The former view uses [[connectionism]] to study the mind, whereas the latter emphasizes [[symbolic artificial intelligence]]. One way to view the issue is whether it is possible to accurately simulate a human brain on a computer without accurately simulating the neurons that make up the human brain. ===Attention=== {{Main|Attention}} Attention is the selection of important information. The human mind is bombarded with millions of stimuli and it must have a way of deciding which of this information to process. Attention is sometimes seen as a spotlight, meaning one can only shine the light on a particular set of information. Experiments that support this metaphor include the [[dichotic listening]] task (Cherry, 1957) and studies of [[inattentional blindness]] (Mack and Rock, 1998). In the dichotic listening task, subjects are bombarded with two different messages, one in each ear, and told to focus on only one of the messages. At the end of the experiment, when asked about the content of the unattended message, subjects cannot report it.<ref name=Cherry>{{cite journal | author = Cherry E. C. | year = 1953 | title = Some experiments on the recognition of speech, with one and two ears | journal = Journal of the Acoustical Society of America | volume = 25 | issue = 5| pages = 975–979 | doi=10.1121/1.1907229| hdl = 11858/00-001M-0000-002A-F750-3 | hdl-access = free | bibcode = 1953ASAJ...25..975C }}</ref> The psychological construct of attention is sometimes confused with the concept of [[intentionality]] due to some degree of semantic ambiguity in their [[definition]]s. At the beginning of experimental research on attention, [[Wilhelm Wundt]] defined this term as "that psychical process, which is operative in the clear perception of the narrow region of the content of consciousness."<ref name="Wundt_1912">Wilhelm Wundt. (1912). ''Introduction to Psychology,'' trans. Rudolf Pintner (London: Allen, 1912; reprint ed., New York: [[Arno Press]], 1973), p. 16.</ref> His experiments showed the limits of attention in space and time, which were 3-6 letters during an exposition of 1/10 s.<ref name="Wundt_1912" /> Because this notion develops within the framework of the original meaning during a hundred years of research, the definition of attention would reflect the sense when it accounts for the main features initially attributed to this term – it is a process of controlling thought that continues over time.<ref>Leahey, T. H. (1979). "Something old, something new: Attention in Wundt and modern cognitive psychology." ''Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences,'' 15(3), 242-252.</ref> While intentionality is the power of minds to be about something,<ref>Jacob Pierre (2023). "Intentionality", ''The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' (Spring 2023 Edition), Edward N. Zalta & Uri Nodelman (eds.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2023/entries/intentionality/>.</ref> attention is the concentration of awareness on some [[phenomenon]] during a period of time, which is necessary to elevate the clear [[perception]] of the narrow region of the content of [[consciousness]] and which is feasible to control this focus in [[mind]].<ref name="Wundt_1912" /> The significance of knowledge about the scope of attention for studying [[cognition]] is that it defines the intellectual functions of cognition such as apprehension, judgment, reasoning, and working memory. The development of attention scope increases the set of faculties responsible for the [[mind]] relies on how it perceives, remembers, considers, and evaluates in making decisions.<ref>"Mind". Encyclopedia Britannica. [https://www.britannica.com/topic/mind Retrieved] 20 January 2024.</ref> The ground of this statement is that the more details (associated with an event) the mind may grasp for their comparison, association, and categorization, the closer apprehension, judgment, and reasoning of the event are in accord with reality.<ref name="ValDanilov_Mihailova 2022">Val Danilov I, and Mihailova S. (2022). "A Case Study on the Development of Math Competence in an Eight-year-old Child with Dyscalculia: Shared Intentionality in Human-Computer Interaction for Online Treatment Via Subitizing." ''OBM Neurobiology'' 2022;6(2):17; doi:10.21926/obm.neurobiol.2202122</ref> According to Latvian professor Sandra Mihailova and professor Igor Val Danilov, the more elements of the phenomenon (or phenomena ) the mind can keep in the scope of attention simultaneously, the more significant number of reasonable combinations within that event it can achieve, enhancing the probability of better understanding features and particularity of the phenomenon (phenomena).<ref name="ValDanilov_Mihailova 2022" /> For example, three items in the focal point of consciousness yield six possible combinations (3 factorial) and four items – 24 (4 factorial) combinations. The number of reasonable combinations becomes significant in the case of a focal point with six items with 720 possible combinations (6 factorial).<ref name="ValDanilov_Mihailova 2022" /> ===Bodily processes related to cognition=== [[Embodied cognition]] approaches to cognitive science emphasize the role of body and environment in cognition. This includes both neural and extra-neural bodily processes, and factors that range from affective and emotional processes,<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Colombetti, G |author2=Krueger, J. |title=Scaffoldings of the affective mind |journal=Philosophical Psychology |date=2015 |volume=28 |issue=8 |pages=1157–1176|doi=10.1080/09515089.2014.976334 |hdl=10871/15680 |s2cid=73617860 |url=https://philpapers.org/rec/COLSOT-3 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> to posture, motor control, [[proprioception]], and kinaesthesis,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gallagher |first1=Shaun |title=How the Body Shapes the Mind |date=2005 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford}}</ref> to autonomic processes that involve heartbeat<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Garfinkel |first1=S. N. |last2=Barrett |first2=A. B. |last3=Minati |first3=L. |last4=Dolan |first4=R. J. |last5=Seth |first5=A. K. |last6=Critchley |first6=H. D. |title=What the heart forgets: Cardiac timing influences memory for words and is modulated by metacognition and interoceptive sensitivity |journal=Psychophysiology |date=2013 |volume=50 |issue=6 |pages=505–512|doi=10.1111/psyp.12039 |pmid=23521494 |pmc=4340570 }}</ref> and respiration,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Varga |first1=S. |last2=Heck |first2=D. H. |title=Rhythms of the body, rhythms of the brain: respiration, neural oscillations, and embodied cognition |journal=Consciousness and Cognition |date=2017 |volume=56 |pages=77–90|doi=10.1016/j.concog.2017.09.008 |pmid=29073509 |s2cid=8448790 }}</ref> to the role of the enteric gut microbiome.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Davidson |first1=G. L. |last2=Cooke |first2=A. C. |last3=Johnson |first3=C. N. |last4=Quinn |first4=J. L. |title=The gut microbiome as a driver of individual variation in cognition and functional behaviour |journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |date=2018 |volume=373 |issue=1756 |page=20170286|doi=10.1098/rstb.2017.0286 |pmid=30104431 |pmc=6107574 }}</ref> It also includes accounts of how the body engages with or is coupled to social and physical environments. 4E (embodied, embedded, extended and enactive) cognition<ref>{{cite book |editor-last1=Newen |editor-first=A. |editor-last2=De Bruin |editor-first2=L. |editor-last3=Gallagher |editor-first3=S. |title=The Oxford handbook of 4E cognition |date=2018 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Menary |first1=Richard |title=Special Issue on 4E Cognition |journal=Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences |date=2010 |volume=9 |issue=4|doi=10.1007/s11097-010-9187-6 |s2cid=143621939 }}</ref> includes a broad range of views about brain-body-environment interaction, from causal embeddedness to stronger claims about how the mind extends to include tools and instruments, as well as the role of social interactions, action-oriented processes, and affordances. 4E theories range from those closer to classic cognitivism (so-called "weak" embodied cognition<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Alsmith |first1=A. J. T. |last2=De Vignemont |first2=F. |title=Embodying the mind and representing the body |journal=Review of Philosophy and Psychology |date=2012 |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=1–13|doi=10.1007/s13164-012-0085-4 |s2cid=5823387 |url=https://hal.science/ijn_00686107/file/Embodying_the_mind_and_representing_the_body.pdf }}</ref>) to stronger extended<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Clark |first1=Andy |title=Précis of Supersizing the mind: embodiment, action, and cognitive extension |journal=Philosophical Studies |date=2011 |volume=152 |issue=3 |pages=413–416|doi=10.1007/s11098-010-9597-x |s2cid=170708745 }}</ref> and enactive versions that are sometimes referred to as radical embodied cognitive science.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Chemero |first1=Anthony |title=Radical embodied cognitive science |date=2011 |publisher=MIT Press |location=Cambridge}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Hutto, Daniel D. & Erik Myin. |title=Radicalizing enactivism: Basic minds without content |date=2012 |publisher=MIT Press |location=Cambridge}}</ref> A hypothesis of pre-perceptual multimodal integration supports embodied cognition approaches and converges two competing naturalist and constructivist viewpoints about cognition and the development of emotions.<ref name="Reflexes Cognition" >Val Danilov I, Mihailova S (2025). "Reflexes and Shared Intentionality in the Origins of Emotions Development: A Scoping Review of Studies on Blinking in Infants". ''OBM Neurobiology'' 2025; 9(1): 263; doi:10.21926/obm.neurobiol.2501263.</ref> According to this hypothesis supported by empirical data, cognition and emotion development are initiated by the association of affective cues with stimuli responsible for triggering the neuronal pathways of simple reflexes.<ref name="Reflexes Cognition" /> This pre-perceptual multimodal integration can succeed owing to neuronal coherence in mother-child dyads beginning from pregnancy.<ref name="Reflexes Cognition" /> These cognitive-reflex and emotion-reflex stimuli conjunctions further form simple innate neuronal assemblies, shaping the cognitive and emotional neuronal patterns in statistical learning that are continuously connected with the neuronal pathways of reflexes.<ref name="Reflexes Cognition" /> ===Knowledge and processing of language=== {{Main|Theoretical linguistics|Cognitive linguistics|Language|Linguistics|Psycholinguistics}} [[Image:Cgisf-tgg.svg|thumb|230px|A [[Colorless green ideas sleep furiously|well known example]] of a [[Phrase structure rules|phrase structure tree]]. This is one way of representing human language that shows how different components are organized hierarchically. ]] The ability to learn and understand language is an extremely complex process. Language is acquired within the first few years of life, and all humans under normal circumstances are able to acquire language proficiently. A major driving force in the theoretical linguistic field is discovering the nature that language must have in the abstract in order to be learned in such a fashion. Some of the driving research questions in studying how the brain itself processes language include: (1) To what extent is linguistic knowledge innate or learned?, (2) Why is it more difficult for adults to acquire a second-language than it is for infants to acquire their first-language?, and (3) How are humans able to understand novel sentences? The study of language processing ranges from the investigation of the sound patterns of speech to the meaning of words and whole sentences. [[Linguistics]] often divides language processing into [[orthography]], [[phonetics]], [[phonology]], [[morphology (linguistics)|morphology]], [[syntax]], [[semantics]], and [[pragmatics]]. Many aspects of language can be studied from each of these components and from their interaction.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.decodedscience.org/linguistics-short-introduction-beating-heart-human-communications/42808|title=Linguistics: Semantics, Phonetics, Pragmatics, and Human Communication|date=2014-02-16|work=Decoded Science|access-date=2018-02-07|language=en-US|archive-date=6 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170606211715/https://www.decodedscience.org/linguistics-short-introduction-beating-heart-human-communications/42808|url-status=live}}</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=Not sure that Decoded Science is the best possible source here|date=June 2018}} The study of language processing in ''cognitive science'' is closely tied to the field of linguistics. Linguistics was traditionally studied as a part of the humanities, including studies of history, art and literature. In the last fifty years or so, more and more researchers have studied knowledge and use of language as a cognitive phenomenon, the main problems being how knowledge of language can be acquired and used, and what precisely it consists of.<ref>{{cite book | first=Daniela | last=Isac | author2=Charles Reiss | title=I-language: An Introduction to Linguistics as Cognitive Science, 2nd edition |url=http://linguistics.concordia.ca/i-language/ | year=2013 | page=5 | publisher=Oxford University Press | isbn=978-0199660179 | access-date=29 July 2008 | archive-date=6 July 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706173454/http://linguistics.concordia.ca/i-language/ | url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Linguists]] have found that, while humans form sentences in ways apparently governed by very complex systems, they are remarkably unaware of the rules that govern their own speech. Thus linguists must resort to indirect methods to determine what those rules might be, if indeed rules as such exist. In any event, if speech is indeed governed by rules, they appear to be opaque to any conscious consideration. ===Learning and development=== {{Main|Learning|Developmental psychology}} Learning and development are the processes by which we acquire knowledge and information over time. Infants are born with little or no knowledge (depending on how knowledge is defined), yet they rapidly acquire the ability to use language, walk, and [[Cognitive neuroscience of visual object recognition|recognize people and objects]]. Research in learning and development aims to explain the mechanisms by which these processes might take place. A major question in the study of cognitive development is the extent to which certain abilities are [[innate]] or learned. This is often framed in terms of the [[nature and nurture]] debate. The [[Psychological nativism|nativist]] view emphasizes that certain features are innate to an organism and are determined by its [[genetics|genetic]] endowment. The [[empiricist]] view, on the other hand, emphasizes that certain abilities are learned from the environment. Although clearly both genetic and environmental input is needed for a child to develop normally, considerable debate remains about ''how'' genetic information might guide cognitive development. In the area of [[language acquisition]], for example, some (such as [[Steven Pinker]])<ref>{{Cite journal|author=Pinker S., Bloom P.|title=Natural language and natural selection|year=1990|journal=Behavioral and Brain Sciences|issue=4|pages=707–784|volume=13|doi=10.1017/S0140525X00081061|citeseerx=10.1.1.116.4044|s2cid=6167614}}</ref> have argued that specific information containing universal grammatical rules must be contained in the genes, whereas others (such as Jeffrey Elman and colleagues in [[Rethinking Innateness]]) have argued that Pinker's claims are biologically unrealistic. They argue that genes determine the architecture of a learning system, but that specific "facts" about how grammar works can only be learned as a result of experience. ===Memory=== {{Main|Memory}} Memory allows us to store information for later retrieval. Memory is often thought of as consisting of both a long-term and short-term store. Long-term memory allows us to store information over prolonged periods (days, weeks, years). We do not yet know the practical limit of long-term memory capacity. Short-term memory allows us to store information over short time scales (seconds or minutes). Memory is also often grouped into declarative and procedural forms. [[Declarative memory]]—grouped into subsets of [[Semantic memory|semantic]] and [[Episodic memory|episodic forms of memory]]—refers to our memory for facts and specific knowledge, specific meanings, and specific experiences (e.g. "Are apples food?", or "What did I eat for breakfast four days ago?"). [[Procedural memory]] allows us to remember actions and motor sequences (e.g. how to ride a bicycle) and is often dubbed implicit knowledge or memory . Cognitive scientists study memory just as psychologists do, but tend to focus more on how memory bears on [[cognitive process]]es, and the interrelationship between cognition and memory. One example of this could be, what mental processes does a person go through to retrieve a long-lost memory? Or, what differentiates between the cognitive process of recognition (seeing hints of something before remembering it, or memory in context) and recall (retrieving a memory, as in "fill-in-the-blank")? ===Perception and action=== {{Main|Perception}} [[Image:Necker cube.svg|thumb|150px|[[The Necker cube]], an example of an optical illusion]] [[File:Checker shadow illusion.svg|thumb|right|An optical illusion. The square A is exactly the same shade of gray as square B. See [[checker shadow illusion]].]] Perception is the ability to take in information via the [[senses]], and process it in some way. [[Visual perception|Vision]] and [[hearing]] are two dominant senses that allow us to perceive the environment. Some questions in the study of visual perception, for example, include: (1) How are we able to recognize objects?, (2) Why do we perceive a continuous visual environment, even though we only see small bits of it at any one time? One tool for studying visual perception is by looking at how people process [[optical illusion]]s. The image on the right of a Necker cube is an example of a bistable percept, that is, the cube can be interpreted as being oriented in two different directions. The study of [[Haptic perception|haptic]] ([[Touch|tactile]]), [[olfactory]], and [[gustatory]] stimuli also fall into the domain of perception. Action is taken to refer to the output of a system. In humans, this is accomplished through motor responses. Spatial planning and movement, speech production, and complex motor movements are all aspects of action. ===Consciousness=== {{Excerpt|Consciousness}}
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