Читать книгу The Handy Psychology Answer Book - Lisa J. Cohen - Страница 220

Cognitive science can be seen as an outgrowth of the cognitive revolution. Cognitive scientists use tools of evolutionary psychology, linguistics, computer science, philosophy, and neurobiology to investigate mental phenomena from a scientific vantage point. One of the aims of cognitive science is to create complex computer programs to model psychological and brain processes. Cognitive scientists address a broad range of psychological problems including memory, language, learning, and decision-making. Theories of neural networks address how the vast network of brain cells, or neurons, work together to create complex behaviors. Out of these investigations, many remarkable technological innovations have developed, including voice recognition software and advances in robotics.

Can the mind be reduced to mathematical equations?

Computer models of human psychology are based on mathematical rules. It is a philosophical question whether the mind can ever be wholly explained by a finite set of mathematical equations. A new branch of philosophy called neurophilosophy endorses this view while the holistic tradition of William James, the Gestalt theorists, and the humanistic psychologists would argue that the whole is more than the sum of its parts. As of now, there is no definitive answer to this question. Another controversy regarding cognitive science and artificial intelligence involves the concept of qualia. This refers to the subjective quality of a mental process, the yellow of yellow, the sadness of sad. AI may well be able to model the neurological processes underlying the perception of the color yellow, but can it explain how these neuronal firing patterns produce the experience of yellow? At present, we simply do not know the answer to these fundamental philosophical questions.