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between perception, memory, control processes,
and human response. This domain derives con-
cepts from various scientific domains, such as
neurophysiology, experimental and evolutionary
psychology, behavioral neuroscience, psycholin-
guistics, computer science, artificial and human
intelligence, and philosophy. Also, developments
in cognitive science support these fields of science.
Another question is, how is the Internet changing
the way people think. When asked this question
by the World Question Center (2010; Brockman,
2011), a cognitive psychologist and neuroscientist
Stephen M. Kosslyn argued that “relationships
can become so close that other people essentially
act as extensions of oneself, much like a wooden
leg can serve as an extension of oneself. When
another person helps us in such ways, he or she
is participating in what I've called a 'Social Pros-
thetic System'.”
Kosslyn stated (Brockman, 2011),
from computer science and control theory”
(Boden, 2006, p. 12); a study that “deals with all
mental processes. Cognition (language, memory,
perception, problem solving, …) is included, of
course; but also motivation, emotion, and social
interaction - and the control of motor action,
which is largely what cognition has evolved
for
”
(Boden, 2006, p. 10).
Fields of enquiry explored in computer science
include perception, the use of language, thinking,
thought processing and learning, knowledge rep-
resentation, and modeling of those processes on
a computer. Cognitive psychologists draw their
results from studies of the activities focused on
gaining knowledge, such as problem solving,
attention, creativity, memory, and perception.
Several centers conduct research on cognitive
neuroscience, biopsychology, and cognitive in-
formatics, e.g. the SAGE Center for the Study of
the Mind, with results published in a number of
scientific journals such as Journal of Cognitive
Neuroscience, Cognitive Neuropsychology, and
International Journal of Cognitive Informatics and
Natural Intelligence. A wide spectrum of research
methods that have been used for cognitive studies
include naturalistic observation and experimental
studies on animal behavior; introspection, clinical
interviews and clinical observation; research on
neural processes derived from studies of brain
injuries, brain lesions, autopsies, brain stimulation,
and other experimental studies on patients and
animals; psychological and psychiatric studies;
imaging brain structures and functioning; creating
computational models with several information
processing approaches: using simulations, visu-
alizations, data mining, neural networks, cloud
computing, biologically and evolutionary inspired
computation, among other approaches. Margaret
Boden (2006) examines the relation between
neurophysiology and computational neuroscience:
The Internet has extended my memory, percep-
tion, and judgment. Regarding memory: Once I
look up something on the Internet, I don't need to
retain all the details for future use … the Internet
functions as if it is my memory. It's become com-
pletely natural to check facts as I write. Regarding
perception: Sometimes I feel as if the Internet
has granted me clairvoyance: I can see things at
a distance … the world really does feel smaller.
Regarding judgment: The Internet has made me
smarter … it helps me to distill the essence of
its meaning … and I then compare and contrast
what I think with what others have thought. …
Moreover, I use the Internet for “sanity checks,”
trying to gauge whether my emotional reactions
to an event are reasonable, quickly comparing
them to those of others.
Margaret Boden (2010) — a researcher in
artificial intelligence, psychology, philosophy,
cognitive, and computer science — describes
cognitive science as “the interdisciplinary study
of mind, informed by theoretical concepts drawn
If neuroscience looks at the brain (and the rest
of the nervous system) and asks, 'What does this
bit do?', computational neuroscience asks, 'How
