Computation And Cognition: Toward a Foundation for Cognitive Science

Zenon W. Pylyshyn

ISBN 10: 026266058X / ISBN 13: 9780262660587

Published by MIT Press, Cambridge, 1986

About this Item

1986 Fourth Printing. Softcover. Good. Wearing on the covers and spine. Interior is clean and unmarked. 292p.

Seller Inventory # 12228

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Computation And Cognition: Toward a Foundation for Cognitive Science
• Publisher: MIT Press, Cambridge
• Publication Date: 1986
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 026266058X
• ISBN 13: 9780262660587
• Binding: Softcover
• Condition: Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • General Science

About this title

Synopsis

The question, "What is Cognitive Science?" is often asked but seldom answered to anyone's satisfaction. Until now, most of the answers have come from the new breed of philosophers of mind. This book, however, is written by a distinguished psychologist and computer scientist who is well-known for his work on the conceptual foundations of cognitive science, and especially for his research on mental imagery, representation, and perception.

In Computation and Cognition, Pylyshyn argues that computation must not be viewed as just a convenient metaphor for mental activity, but as a literal empirical hypothesis. Such a view must face a number of serious challenges. For example, it must address the question of "strong equivalents" of processes, and must empirically distinguish between phenomena which reveal what knowledge the organism has, phenomena which reveal properties of the biologically determined "functional architecture" of the mind. The principles and ideas Pylyshyn develops are applied to a number of contentious areas of cognitive science, including theories of vision and mental imagery. In illuminating such timely theoretical problems, he draws on insights from psychology, theoretical computer science, artificial intelligence, and psychology of mind.

A Bradford Book

About the Author

Zenon W. Pylyshyn is Board of Governors Professor of Cognitive Science at Rutgers Center for Cognitive Science. He is the author of Seeing and Visualizing: It's Not what You Think (2003) and Things and Places: How the mind connects with the world (2007) both published by The MIT Press, as well as over a hundred scientific papers on perception, attention, and the computational theory of mind.