THE COGNITIVE SCIENCES: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH

Abstract

THE COGNITIVE SCIENCES: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH. Carolyn P. Sobel . Mountain View, CA: Mayfield, 2001. Pp. xx + 327. $101.00 cloth. As suggested by its subtitle, this volume looks at issues in cognitive science from varying perspectives, given in the five parts to the book: psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, artificial intelligence, and philosophy. Each part contains two chapters, the first of which reviews the development of the field as well as basic issues, and the second of which introduces some specific topics of current interest. The more specific topics include, among others: in psychology, propositional networks, mental imagery, problem solving, and memory; in neuroscience, functional and structural brain-mapping techniques; in linguistics, first and second language acquisition (covered in a total of 7–8 pages), aphasia, machine translation, and natural language processing by computer; in artificial intelligence, expert systems, connectionism, and robotics; and, in philosophy, the mind-body problem, free will, and consciousness.