Social Science Statistics Blog

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22 September 2005

The Two Levels of Cognitive Science

Amy Perfors

Our job as social scientists is to learn how to take data that reflects various aspects of how people and societies work, and then use that data to form abstract theories or models about the world. Different fields in social science look at different data, but we all share common methods and (I imagine) some common general questions. This blog is set up to allow our different disciplines to discuss our commonalities of method and approach, sharing insights from our respective fields.

Cognitive science is a bit unusual because the questions of method and approach are simultaneously relevant on two levels rather than one. In cognitive science, the object of study (the brain) must solve the same questions as the scientists themselves. In other words, just as the job of the cognitive scientist is to figure out how best to take data in the world and form models about the world, the job of the brain is to figure out how to take data in the world and form a model about the world. As a result, the issues that crop up again and again for scientists—which quantitative approaches "compress" data most effectively and fastest, when statistical or symbolic models capture the world best, and how much needs to be built into our models from the beginning—are the very issues the brain needs to solve as it is learning about the world. They are thus issues that the cognitive science world continually debates about on both levels: not only what works for us as scientists (and when), but what works for the brain itself (and when).

When I post here, therefore, I'll be constantly playing with these levels: I'll be talking about quantitative methods in social science not just from the perspective of the scientist (as will everyone else here), but also from the perspective of the mind (which I'm guessing most other people won't). In short, the questions we all struggle with in terms of methodology are the same questions cognitive scientists struggle with in terms of content. It's my hope that playing with these questions on two levels at once will be edifying, entertaining, and lots of fun. I think it will be.

Posted by James Greiner at 7:00 AM