7.1485, Disc: Cognitive science intro book

Tue Oct 22 14:23:51 UTC 1996

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LINGUIST List:  Vol-7-1485. Tue Oct 22 1996. ISSN: 1068-4875. Lines:  136

Subject: 7.1485, Disc: Cognitive science intro book

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---------------------------------Directory-----------------------------------
1)
Date:  Mon, 21 Oct 1996 14:21:51 EDT
From:  rapaport at cs.Buffalo.EDU ("William J. Rapaport")
Subject:  Re: 7.1433, Sum: Cognitive science intro book

---------------------------------Messages------------------------------------
1)
Date:  Mon, 21 Oct 1996 14:21:51 EDT
From:  rapaport at cs.Buffalo.EDU ("William J. Rapaport")
Subject:  Re: 7.1433, Sum: Cognitive science intro book

>>From the looks of Barbara Zurer Pearson's summary of intro cog sci
books, I don't think she got the kind of help she needed.  Let me cut
to the chase, then expand on my reasons for my dissatisfaction with
the info she got:

1.  The best intro CogSci text for "naive" undergrads is clearly the
    new book by Paul Thagard that she cited:

	Thagard, Paul. 1996. Mind: Introduction to Cognitive Science.
	Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    It's brand new, so many people will not have seen it yet.  It's
short, clear, and should do the job nicely.

2.  I recall that in her original posting, she was looking for a text
    that might be suitable for English students.  It never occurred to
    me at the time to suggest my own research group's book, primarily
    because it isn't a text, but given Pearson's audience, it might
    work:

	Duchan, Judith F.; Bruder, Gail A.; & Hewitt, Lynne (eds.)
	(1995), _Deixis in Narrative: A Cognitive Science Perspective_
	(Hillsdale, NJ:  Lawrence Erlbaum Associates).

    This summarizes a decade's research of an interdisciplinary
cognitive science research group of AI researchers, philosophers,
psychologists, linguists, geographers, English-lit scholars, etc.,
etc., on understanding how a reader of narrative can keep track of
"deictic" (indexical) information in a narrative: where and when in
the "story world" the events are taking place and "who" the focal
characters are at any given time.  I can send anyone who's interested
a table of contents as well as a (positive) review by Arthur Graesser
and Cheryl Bowers that appeared in _Minds & Machines_

Now, I'd like to comment on Pearson's summary.  First, to establish my
credentials: I have been involved in teaching cognitive science
courses since the early 1980s, I have published papers in _Cognitive
Science_, I have been a referee for the Cognitive Science Society
conferences for several years, and I direct the SUNY Buffalo Center
for Cognitive Science.  Now for the comments:

A good book, but highly slanted *anti* "standard" cognitive science; I
wouldn't recommend this as an intro text.

|      Garfield, J. (ed.). 1990  Foundations of cognitive
| science: the essential readings.  NY: Paragon House.

Another good book, but primarily a collection of philosophical essays
on the foundations of cognitive science; at best a supplement to a
good text.

|      Osherson and Lasnik 1990. _Language_ volume of the MIT
| Press "An Invitation to Cognitive Science" series.

Part of an excellent intro collection, BUT: If Pearson thinks that the
Stillings book is too hard, I think her students will find this one
impenetrable.  By the way, there is a new, 1995, edition.

I might add at this point that several of the books appear to be texts
of cognitive *psychology*, which is *not* the same as cognitive
science (it's part of it, but only a part).

I continue to think that this is the best intro for a general
audience, primarily because it takes a historical approach.  I
currently use it as the *main* text for my course.

| WEB resources

Two sources that were not cited, but should have been, are:

``Cognitive and Psychological Sciences on the Internet''
[http://www-psych.stanford.edu/cogsci/]

and

``The World-Wide Web Virtual Library:  Cognitive Science''
[http://www.cog.brown.edu/pointers/cognitive.html].

I hope this further information helps.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------
William J. Rapaport
Associate Professor of Computer Science
Adjunct Professor of Philosophy
Acting Director, Center for Cognitive Science

226 Bell Hall                  | phone:  (716) 645-3180 x 112
Department of Computer Science | fax:    (716) 645-3464
SUNY Buffalo                   | email:  rapaport at cs.buffalo.edu
Buffalo, NY 14260              | web:    http://www.cs.buffalo.edu
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