Open Encyclopedia
of Cognitive Science
A multidisciplinary guide to understanding the mind. A freely-available, growing collection of peer-reviewed articles introducing key topics to a broad audience of students and scholars.
Published by MIT Press · ISSN 3066-7879
Why an Open Encyclopedia?
The Open Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science provides freely-available, peer-reviewed introductions to key topics for students, scholars, and curious minds. Each article is written by leading researchers and reviewed by expert section editors, ensuring accuracy and accessibility.
Learn more about OECS →Explore the Encyclopedia
201 articles connected by 801 cross-references. Visualize the network, browse the matrix, and discover patterns.
Featured Articles
Discover peer-reviewed entries on cognitive science
Distributional Semantics
Gemma Boleda
Distributional semantics is an approach to meaning that takes the use of words and other linguistic units as the basis for semantic representation. It is based on the observation that words that are similar or related in meaning (such as “cat” and “dog”) appear in similar linguistic contexts (“I jus
Inner Speech
Charles Fernyhough
Inner speech refers to the silent conversation with the self that many people report. Also termed internal monologue, inner dialogue, inner speaking, verbal thinking, and covert self-talk, inner speech is increasingly researched as an important feature of human conscious experience. New cognitive an
Normativity
Marco F. H. Schmidt, Hannes Rakoczy
Our lives are permeated by thinking about right or wrong, good or bad, and the like. Normativity is a pervasive and intricate part of human social being. In a broad sense, we deal with normativity whenever we apply standards of judgment or evaluation to some states of affairs. For instance, biologic
Infant Perception
Scott P. Johnson
Perception is the set of processes by which organisms interpret and organize sensory information to understand the world and plan appropriate actions across different scenarios. This involves receiving input through the sensory systems (including vision, audition, touch, taste, and smell) and making
Language
Adele E. Goldberg
Human language has long provided a crucible for new theories and methods in nearly all areas of cognitive science. Fiery debates have arisen, and critical advances have been made through investigations into how best to characterize relationships between form and function, the extent and implications
Eugenic Thinking and the Cognitive Sciences
Robert A. Wilson
Eugenic thinking involves distinguishing between sorts or kinds of people in terms of the perceived desirable or undesirable traits that those people are likely to transmit to future generations. Although eugenics itself is often thought of as an ideology that generated a social movement of global i
“The OECS has pulled off the magic trick of transforming The MIT Encyclopedia of the Cognitive Sciences into a renewed, dynamic online resource. The editors have thoughtfully focused on many of the most central topics in the field and have recruited key players to write well-crafted and informed entries. Supported by an excellent online interface run by The MIT Press, this constantly updated and expanding resource will become invaluable for the cognitive science community.”
“Systematically explore the science of the mind, or wander freely through its landmark topics––it’s your choice. Wherever you land in the OECS, you’ll find an authoritative yet accessible overview of key concepts and hot debates that make cognitive science an exciting field.”