Chapter 1: Representation and Computation

How does the mind work?

1. solve problems, make decisions, explain actions of others, acquire new concepts
2. The "main aim of cognitive science": "to explain how people accomplish these various kinds of thinking"
3. Why? education, product design, more useful software, political manipulation
4. Metaphors for the mind: impressions on a blank sheet, hydraulic device, telephone switchboard, computer
5. Brief history:
   • Plato -> innate concepts (ie, virtue)
   • Descartes, Leibniz -> thinking, reasining (rationalism)
   • Aristotle -> rules deduced from experience (empiricism)
   • Kant -> rationalism + empiricism
   • Wundt, Watson, Skinner -> from arm-chair philosophy, to science. Focus on observables (behaviorism) >Miller -> explored limits of memory
   • McCarthy, Minsky, Newell, Simon -> AI
   • Chomsky -> linguistic rules
6. CRUM
7. data structures + algorithms = running programs
8. mental representation + computational procedures = mind
9. theory vs. model
10. Criteria for evaluating cognitive theories

    Representational power Computational power Problem solving: planning, decision making, explaining Learning Language Psychological plausibility Neurological plausibility Practical applicability (education, design, intelligent systems)

11. A Puzzle
12. Come up with a theory that explains how you solved the problem.