Interdisciplinarity of Cognitive Science 1

Introduction Cognitive science is a relatively young field. Its beginnings are typically dated in the 1950s, and it did not become a large-scale activity (with a society, meetings, and degree programs) until the late 1970s or early 1980s. As in most young fields, one of the salient features of cognitive science is its interdisciplinarity. All definitions of cognitive science make important mention of this feature, although they may vary slightly in which disciplines they include as contributing to cognitive science (e. Why did researchers from several different disciplines come together to form cognitive science? More generally, why do researchers from different disciplines ever come together to form new disciplines? The institutional and disciplinary barriers to interdisciplinary work can be quite formidable. The goal of this chapter will be to examine this general question using the case of cognitive science. To examine this question, we will use a historical analysis methodology. In particular, we will analyze the state of interdisciplinarity in cognitive science, both historically and recently. Two questions will be at the forefront of our investigation. First, which disciplines have taken part in cognitive science? Second, what factors account for the relative presence or absence of each discipline in cognitive science? It is our belief that understanding how and why members of existing disciplines take part in the formation of another will provide an important insight into the process by which new disciplines are formed. Interdisciplinarity of Cognitive Science 3 In studying the field of cognitive science, we use a case study approach. In particular, we focus on the Cognitive Science Society, an influential force in the field. The Society has two main social worlds: its production world, the journal Cognitive Science, and its communal world, the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. At the end of the chapter, we will briefly consider data from sources outside of the Society. The earlier paper should be consulted for more detailed analyses of the functionality of collaborations. On the topic of the interdisciplinarity of cognitive science, this chapter goes beyond the earlier paper both in the kinds of analyses conducted and the scope of the data sets analyzed. Background Cognitive Science is a high quality journal that has citation impact levels among the upper tiers of social science journals. The journal was first published in 1977. At that time, its subtitle was: " A multidisciplinary journal of artificial intelligence, psychology, and …