Cognition is … Fundamentally Cultural

Cognition is … Fundamentally Cultural

A prevailing concept of cognition in psychology is inspired by the computer metaphor. Its focus on mental states that are generated and altered by information input, processing, storage and transmission invites a disregard for the cultural dimension of cognition, based on three (implicit) assumptions: cognition is internal, processing can be distinguished from content, and processing is indepen...

Is evolution fundamentally creative?

Categorizing, defining, and observing open-endedness are among the most important open research challenges in artificial life. As a step towards addressing these challenges, this paper highlights parallels between open-ended evolution (OEE) and the theory of computational creativity. Exposing this relationship may allow existing empirical tools for quantifying creativity to more clearly illumin...

Is Breathing Fundamentally a Reflex Phenomenon?

IT has been long assumed, but it is still uncertain, that the so-called respiratory centre possesses independent automaticity. On the other hand, there is abundant evidence of the importance of reflex control of respiratory movements. Whether the rhythmic discharge of the respiratory centre will eventually prove to be a localised physicochemical process [Gesell, 1925] in and about a group of ne...

Cultural Cognition and Public Policy

The Cultural Part of Cognition

This paper discusses the role of cultural anthropology in Cognitive Science. Culture is described as a very large pool of information passed along from generation to generation, composed of learned "programs" for action and understanding. These cultural programs differ in important ways from computer programs. Cultural programs tend to be unspecified and inexplicit rather than clearly stated al...