Foundations Of Cognitive Science

Situated Cognition and Bricolage

This week again performs a compare-and-contrast between classical and embodied approaches, using the production system. We start with models defined by the "classical sandwich", and move to ones in which the sandwich is gone because sensing and acting don't have to be mediated by central thinking.

We then proceed to consider the implications of this view. One is that we need a new notion of cognitive control. A second is that we note the possibility that our minds have leaked into the world. A third is that cognitive scientists must think like bricoleurs, and we must train students of cognitive science to use bricolage as well.