Introduction to Computational Cognitive Modeling

Instead going straight into dealing with specific approaches, issues, and domains of computational cognitive modeling, it would be more appropriate to first take some time to explore a few general questions that lie at the very core of cognitive science and computational cognitive modeling. What is computational cognitive modeling? What exactly can it contribute to cognitive science? What has it contributed thus far? Where is it going? Answering such questions may sound overly defensive to the insiders of computational cognitive modeling, and may even seem so to some other cognitive scientists, but they are very much needed in a volume like this—because they lie at the very foundation of this field. Many insiders and outsiders alike would like to take a balanced and rational look at these questions, without indulging in excessive cheer-leading, which, as one would expect, happens sometimes amongst computational modeling enthusiasts. However, given the large number of issues involved and the complexity of these issues, only a cursory discussion is possible in this introductory chapter. One may thus view this chapter as a set of pointers to the existing literature, rather than a full-scale discussion.