Introduction to Cognitive Science
7±2 Key Dates in Cognitive Science
Last Update: 20 April 2011
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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).
There are:
4 main dates (I-IV),
3 secondary dates (1-3; total=7), and
- They are listed below in chronological order.
- Items of most significance are in boldface.
-
1943
-
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:
-
Rosenblueth, Arturo;
Wiener, Norbert;
& Bigelow, Julian
(1943),
"Behavior, Purpose, and Teleology",
Philosophy of Science
10(1) (January): 18-24.
-
Craik, Kenneth J.W.
(1943),
The Nature of Explanation
(Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press).
-
1947
-
Pitts, Walter H.;
& McCulloch, Warren S. (1947),
"How We Know Universals:
The Perception of Auditory and Visual Forms",
Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics
9: 127-147.
-
Boden also cites:
Turing, Alan M.
(1947?),
"Intelligent Machinery"
(UK National Physical Laboratory);
first published in
Bernard Meltzer & Donald M. Michie (eds.),
Machine Intelligence 5
(Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1969): 3-23;
reprinted with commentary in B. Jack Copeland (ed.) (2004),
The Essential Turing (Oxford: Oxford University
Press), Ch. 10, pp. 395-432.
- However, both Copeland as well as the online
manuscript give the date as 1948.
-
1956, the "annus mirabilis"
- Bruner, Jerome S.;
Goodnow, Jacqueline J.;
& Austin, George J.
(1956),
A Study of Thinking
(New York: John Wiley).
-
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.
-
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).
-
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.
-
Dartmouth Summer Research Project on AI, including:
- 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 MachineA 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
-
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
-
Newell, Allen;
Shaw, J.C.;
&
Simon, Herbert A.
(1958),
"Elements of a Theory of Human Problem Solving",
Psychological Review
65(3): 151-166.
-
Rosenblatt, Frank
(1958),
"The Perceptron:
A Probabilistic Model for Information Storage and Organization
in the Brain",
Psychological Review
65(6): 386-408.
-
1960
-
Harvard Center for Cognitive Studies founded (Bruner, Miller)
-
Miller, George A.;
Galanter, Eugene;
& Pribram, Karl H.
(1960),
Plans and the Structure of Behavior
(New York: Henry Holt).
-
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).
-
1969
-
1979
-
1986
-
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:
-
Sloman, Aaron (2007),
"A Major Publishing Event:
A Two Volume Analytical History of
Cognitive Science".
-
Chomsky, Noam (2007),
Review of Boden 2006,
Artificial Intelligence
171(18) (December): 1094-1103.
-
Thagard, Paul (2007),
"Theory and Experiment in Cognitive Science",
Artificial Intelligence
171(18) (December): 1104-1106.
-
Feldman, Jerry (2007),
"Her Story of Cognitive Science",
Artificial Intelligence
171(18) (December): 1107-1109.
-
Boden, Margaret (2008),
"Odd Man Out: Reply to Reviewers",
Artificial Intelligence
172(18) (December): 1944-1964.
Copyright © 2007–2011 by
William J. Rapaport
(rapaport@buffalo.edu)
http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/~rapaport/575/7keydates.html-20110420