Notes on the textbook

Thagard, Paul:  Mind:  Introduction to Cognitive Science, Second Edition

Note: The following lists some of the topics in the textbook readings to which I would like for you to pay particular attention.  Please remember, however, that you are responsible for all of the assigned readings.

Finally, this is a work in progress.  I am trying it out for the first time - please consider the following to be a draft.

• Chapter 1
:  Representation and Computation
• Overview and history of the field
• CRUM - Computational-Representational Understanding of Mind
• Analogy
• Program = data structures + algorithms
• Thinking = mental representation + computational procedure
• Symbolic AI (Physical Symbol System Hypothesis)
• GOFAI = KR + Search
• The use of computer programs to validate psychological theories
• Evaluation criteria (page 15)
• Take note (in all chapters) of the discussion questions.
• Check Textbook resources web page (really neat stuff!)
• Chapter 2
: Logic
• Logic is frequently used for problem-solving and knowledge representation in AI.
• The formal logic of mathematics has some positive aspects:  It is precise, and it comes with a built-in reasoning system (proof).
• Convenient as it is, there is good evidence that formal logic is not how people think (see Thagard's discussion on Wason's test, pp 35 - 36, and the Laird reading).
• The precision of mathematical logic sometimes gets in the way (recall the classroom discussion on Euclid's first postulate).  Furthermore, the way people use logic includes mechanisms for retracting statements and for making probabilistic inferences.  Current problem-solving systems account for this (we'll see one such approach in our discussion on CLIPS in week 7).
• Note the discussion on abduction on pages 32 - 34.
• Look up Gotlob Frege.
• You may also be interested in reading Keith Devlin's book Goodbye Descartes.  The first part of the book gives a great discussion of logic and its history.  The second half is an argument against the computational model for intelligence as we have discussed it so far.
• Chapter 3: Rules
• We will examine rule-based systems in further detail in our discussion on CLIPS in week 7.
• This a very important topic.  There is good evidence that much of our problem-solving and knowledge representation takes the form of rules (condition-action pairs, productions).
• See also the Anderson reading and look for an introduction to SOAR coming up later.