7±2 Key Dates in Cognitive Science

Last Update: 20 April 2011

Note: or material is highlighted

This website is a summary of:

Boden, Margaret A. (2007), "The History of Cognitive Science: Seven Key Dates", in Stella Vosniadou, Daniel Kayser, & Athanassios Protopapas (eds.), Proceedings of the European Cognitive Science Conference 2007 (London: Taylor & Francis Psychology Press).

Notes:

For instructions on how to access articles from certain journals (notably Psychological Review) from buffalo.edu machines,
link to: "Classic (Online) Readings in Cognitive Science"
To get a username and password for links that require one, contact Bill Rapaport.

There are:
4 main dates (I-IV),

3 secondary dates

2 "runners up"

They are listed below in chronological order.
Items of most significance are in boldface.

1943
1. McCulloch, Warren S., & Pitts, Walter H. (1943), "A Logical Calculus of the Ideas Immanent in Nervous Activity", Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics (Chicago: University of Chicago Press) 5: 115-133.
  - For an excellent summary and discussion of the historical importance of this paper for cognitive science, philosophy of mind, connectionist AI, and computer science, see:
    - Piccinini, Gualtiero (2004), "The First Computational Theory of Mind and Brain: A Close Look at Mcculloch and Pitts's ‘Logical Calculus of Ideas Immanent in Nervous Activity’", Synthese 141(2) (August): 175–215.
2. Rosenblueth, Arturo; Wiener, Norbert; & Bigelow, Julian (1943), "Behavior, Purpose, and Teleology", Philosophy of Science 10(1) (January): 18-24.
3. Craik, Kenneth J.W. (1943), The Nature of Explanation (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press).
1956, the "annus mirabilis"
1. Bruner, Jerome S.; Goodnow, Jacqueline J.; & Austin, George J. (1956), A Study of Thinking (New York: John Wiley).
2. Miller, George A. (1956), "The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information", Psychological Review 63(2) (March): 81-97.
3. Rochester, N[athaniel]; Holland, J[ohn] H.; Haibt, L.H.; & Duda, W.L. (1956), "Tests on a Cell Assembly Theory of the Action of the Brain, Using a Large Digital Computer", Institute of Radio Engineers [now, IEEE] Transactions on Information Theory 2(3): 80-93.
  - Computational implementation of Hebb's "connectionist" theory of cell assemblies.
  - This issue also contains important papers by Newell & Simon, Shannon, Yngve, Chomsky, and Miller (see below).
4. Place, U.T. (1956), "Is Consciousness a Brain Process?", British Journal of Psychology 47: 44-50.
  - Reprinted in:
    Cummins, Robert; & Cummins, Denise Dellarosa (eds.) (2000), Minds, Brains, and Computers: The Foundations of Cognitive Science, an Anthology (Malden, MA: Blackwell): 361-366.
5. Dartmouth Summer Research Project on AI, including:
  - 1st draft of Marvin Minsky'si "Steps toward AI"
  - Newell & Simon's Logic Theorist
6. IEEE Symposium on Information Theory, including:
  - a version of Miller's magical-number paper:
    Miller, George A. (1956), "Human Memory and the Storage of Information", Institute of Radio Engineers [now, IEEE] Transactions on Information Theory 2(3): 129-137.
  - a paper on Newell & Simon's Logic Theorist:
    Newell, Allen; & Simon, Herbert A. (1956), "The Logic Theory Machine—A Complex Information Processing System", IRE [now, IEEE] Transactions on Information Theory 2(3) (September): 61-79.
  - and a paper by Chomsky on formal grammars:
    Chomsky, Noam (1956), "Three Models for the Description of Language" IRE [now, IEEE] Transactions on Information Theory 2(3) (September): 113-124.
1958
1. Teddington Symposium on the Mechanization of Thought Processes, National Physical Laboratory (London), including:
  - Selfridge on Pandemonium:
    Selfridge, Oliver G. (1959), "Pandemonium: A Paradigm for Learning", in D.V. Blake & A.M. Uttley (eds.), Proceedings of the Symposium on Mechanisation of Thought Processes (London: HM Stationary Office): 511-529.
  - Rosenblatt on Perceptrons (see below)
  - McCarthy on common sense:
    McCarthy, John (1959), "Programs with Common Sense", in D.V. Blake & A.M. Uttley (eds.), Proceedings of the Symposium on Mechanisation of Thought Processes (London: HM Stationary Office).
  - Bar-Hillel on the frame problem
  - Minsky on heuristic programming
2. Newell, Allen; Shaw, J.C.; & Simon, Herbert A. (1958), "Elements of a Theory of Human Problem Solving", Psychological Review 65(3): 151-166.
3. Rosenblatt, Frank (1958), "The Perceptron: A Probabilistic Model for Information Storage and Organization in the Brain", Psychological Review 65(6): 386-408.
1960
1. Harvard Center for Cognitive Studies founded (Bruner, Miller)
2. Miller, George A.; Galanter, Eugene; & Pribram, Karl H. (1960), Plans and the Structure of Behavior (New York: Henry Holt).
3. Putnam, Hilary (1960), "Minds and Machines", in Sidney Hook (ed.), Dimensions of Mind: A Symposium (New York: New York University Press): 148-179.
  - Reprinted in:
    Cummins, Robert; & Cummins, Denise Dellarosa (eds.) (2000), Minds, Brains, and Computers: The Foundations of Cognitive Science, an Anthology (Malden, MA: Blackwell): 20-33.
  - Note: Putnam rejected this argument for functionalism in:
    Putnam, Hilary (1988), Representation and Reality (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press).
    - "Theorem. Every ordinary open system is a realization of every abstract finite automaton." (Putnam 1988: 121-125.)
1. 1969
  - Minsky, Marvin; & Papert, Seymour (1969), Perceptrons: An Introduction to Computational Geometry (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press).
    - Expanded Edition (MIT Press, 1987)
  1. 1979
    - Hofstadter, Douglas R. (1979), Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid (New York: Basic Books).
      - Amazon Online Reader page
      - Google Books page
2. 1986
  - {Rumelhart, David E.; McClelland, James L}; & the PDP Research Group (1986), Parallel Distributed Processing: Explorations in the Microstructure of Cognition: Vol. 1: Foundations; Vol. 2: Psychological and Biological Models (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press).
3. 1987
  - Interdisciplinary Workshop on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems (Los Alamos, NM)
    - Langton, Christopher G. (ed.) (1989), Artificial Life: The Proceedings of an Interdisciplinary Workshop on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems (September 1987, Los Alamos, New Mexico) (Redwood City, CA: Addison-Wesley).

To all of which I humbly add an eighth date (thus making the unofficial count 7±3):

2006

Boden, Margaret A. (2006), Mind as Machine: A History of Cognitive Science, 2 volumes (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
- Table of Contents and Chapter 1 in PDF
- See also:
  1. Sloman, Aaron (2007), "A Major Publishing Event: A Two Volume Analytical History of Cognitive Science".
  2. Chomsky, Noam (2007), Review of Boden 2006, Artificial Intelligence 171(18) (December): 1094-1103.
  3. Thagard, Paul (2007), "Theory and Experiment in Cognitive Science", Artificial Intelligence 171(18) (December): 1104-1106.
  4. Feldman, Jerry (2007), "Her Story of Cognitive Science", Artificial Intelligence 171(18) (December): 1107-1109.
  5. Boden, Margaret (2008), "Odd Man Out: Reply to Reviewers", Artificial Intelligence 172(18) (December): 1944-1964.