What is Cognitive Sciences? (part 1)
5:45 PMApa itu Sains Kognitif?
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“Nadia, What is your major?”
“Cognitive Science. Currently I am doing Bsc
Cognitive Sciences (Hons) at University Malaysia Sarawak”
“Haa? Cognitive Sciences? What is that?!”
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Well, I always get this reaction from people followed by the question (what is cognitive sciences)
and I believe, my fellow coursemates also facing the same situation. For me the
“true” meaning of “what is cognitive sciences” is too complex to be answered in
one sentences. However, as to make it easy for both side (person who asked
& me), I usually give the sweet and simple answer. As simple as..
“oh, cognitive sciences is study about human
mind”
and another silly
respond mostly I will get.
“I see, it sort of like psychology? So can
you read my mind now?!”
To be honest, when
I received this kind of response, I am seriously laughing and I be like..
“Lol, Ofcourse Not! I am not going for bachelor
Degree that offer me power to read someone’s mind, although I wish I could have
that power, unluckily I am not witch or something. So yeah, I cannot read your
mind. But using modern technology like Pet Scan / MRI/ fMRI, it is possible to
examine your brain, to be exact your brain activities/ process”
So does it sounds
familiar to you? Sort of Neuroscience I would say. Yeap! Neuroscience is one of
the discipline in this field of studies.
And how about this
one;
“How can a robot mimic human’s intelligent? Is it
robot as intelligent as human? how can robot have the ability to solve problems
as we all human normally do?”–
Artificial Intelligence
OR this one;
“How does human acquire language? When is the critical
period for the human to learn language? How is our brain process the language?” - Linguistic
According to Wikipedia,
“Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the mind and its processes. It examines what cognition is, what it does
and how it works. It includes research on intelligence and behaviour,
especially focusing on how information is represented, processed, and
transformed (in faculties such as perception, language, memory, attention, reasoning, and emotion) within nervous
systems (humans or other animals) and machines (e.g. computers). Cognitive
science consists of multiple research disciplines, including psychology, artificial
intelligence, philosophy, neuroscience, linguistics, computer
science and anthropology.”
and some
would add “education” field.. as refer to “how do human learn/ effective
learning for human.. so on and so forth.”
As we
know, human is a complex creature. Therefore to study about human mind we
cannot only rely on one discipline, for example Psychology because it is not
explaining the “human mind” as a whole.
Yes, I
just finish my first year, therefore the explaination that I provide possibly
not detailed enough as I should have go deeper on this studies.
However,
I would like to share an article from Borneo Post (January 27, 2006) written by
my lecturer (which is one of my favourite lecturer), on the topic “What is
Cognitive Sciences.” I personally think that her writing regarding this topic
was good enough as I get the whole picture of it. I do STRONGLY advise you to read the article as it is really good and
even more precise.
I am also would like to highlight one thing as
stated in the article,
“Cognitive
Science is a very young science in the world and even more so in Malaysia.”
*click to enlarge*
So it is
not really surprising that most people do not know about the “existance” of Cognitive
Sciences.
What is
meant by “a very young science” refered to by comparing Cognitive Sciences to
other sciences field such as pshychology, physics, chemistry.. so on and so
forth.
Oh by the
way! for your information, I did apply for Coginitive Sciences course during
UPU application. Because I had done lil bit research on this course and it
caught my attention. For me, study about human, especially precious brain and
mind is always interesting!
I think,
this is for now.. shall you have further questions especially to my “Future
Junior” regarding this matter, you can email
it to me, I will
surely spend sometime to read and try my best to help.
Till next
time, See Ya!
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