Research Areas
Cognitive Science and Philosophy of Mind
Research in Cognitive Science traditionally focuses on the intersections of philosophy, cognitive psychology, computer science, and neuroscience. In particular, by integrating/synthesizing theories, experiments, and arguments from the various disciplines, cognitive scientists hope to achieve deeper insights into the nature of cognition. Many of the core issues and questions of cognitive science thus have deep philosophical relevance.
The Philosophy department at Carnegie Mellon has a long history of cognitive science research, and current research includes both substantive contributions to cognitive science, as well as methodological and epistemological analyses of the research project. On the substantive side, Clark Glymour has focused extensively on the problem of human causal learning, frequently through theoretical and experimental collaborations with psychologists in several branches of the University of California. His 2001 book, _The Mind's Arrows_, explored a range of applications of Bayesian networks in cognitive psychology and neuroscience. David Danks focuses on the nature of human categorization, as well as causal learning and reasoning. His work includes both experimental and theoretical components, and so ranges across philosophy, psychology, and computer science. Linda Palmer works on Kant's theory of judgment, with his response to Hume's challenge to induction, and its application in cognitive neuroscience. Her experimental work investigates whether a (Kantian) internal 'signal' of the production of an assembly of mental contents can be identified in brain. Horacio Arlo-Costa has recently worked in various areas of cognitive neuroscience, especially the neural basis of cognitive control in decision making. This includes experimental work with patients with brain lesions (in collaboration with NIH/NINDS), fMRI studies, as well as theoretical work on the foundations of neuro-economics.
On the methodological front, Kevin Kelly has applied techniques from formal learning theory to issues of the computability of human behavior. Horacio Arlo-Costa has also contributed to recent methodological debates about the adequacy of models of bounded rationality in Cognitive Science. Also, Barbara Kaufmann, a post-doctoral researcher in the department, has worked on strategies of inference in cognitive neuropsychology.
In addition, both faculty and graduate students have worked on topics in the history of psychology, everything from the emergence of psychoanalysis to the development of neuropsychology in the 19th century.