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
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179 articles connected by 659 cross-references. Visualize the network, browse the matrix, and discover patterns.
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Discover peer-reviewed entries on cognitive science
Natural Kinds
Muhammad Ali Khalidi
The cognitive achievements of human beings would be inconceivable without the ability to classify the world into categories. In addition to Lassie and Rin Tin Tin, most people recognize “dogs” in general. Along with Andrew and Katrina, some people identify “hurricanes” more broadly. Thus, human bein
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
Affordances
Anthony Chemero
The concept of affordances was introduced by psychologist James J. Gibson as the primary entities that animals, including non-human animals, perceive. For example, rather than perceiving a solid, well-supported surface with an area of approximately 750 cm, approximately 45 cm off the floor, or even
Shared Intentionality
Michael Tomasello
Humans do many things together collaboratively as joint agents or in groups as collective agents. It turns out that these ways of operating together as a “we” have a number of special properties as compared with the cooperative interactions of other animal species. Most important are humans’ special
Compositionality
Ryan M. Nefdt, Christopher Potts
Compositionality is a central concept in cognitive science, with applications in linguistic, visual, and general cognition. In studies on language, the principle says that the meaning of a syntactically complex phrase is a function of the meanings of its constituent parts and the way they are combin
Memory
Nikola Andonovski, Kourken Michaelian
Memory is a capacity that enables an agent’s behavior to be modified and shaped by its past experience. Given this characterization, two central questions arise. First, what are the mechanisms by which such behavioral modifications are produced—that is, how does memory function? Second, should memor
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.
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