More why, less how: What we need from models of cognition.
Published version
Peer-reviewed
Repository URI
Repository DOI
Change log
Authors
Norris, Dennis https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9257-317X
Cutler, Anne
Abstract
Science regularly experiences periods in which simply describing the world is prioritised over attempting to explain it. Cognition, this journal, came into being some 45 years ago as an attempt to lay one such period to rest; without doubt, it has helped create the current cognitive science climate in which theory is decidedly welcome. Here we summarise the reasons why a theoretical approach is imperative in our field, and call attention to some potentially counter-productive trends in which cognitive models are concerned too exclusively with how processes work at the expense of why the processes exist in the first place and thus what the goal of modelling them must be.
Description
Keywords
Cognition, Theory, Word recognition, Cognition, Cognitive Science, Emotions, Humans
Journal Title
Cognition
Conference Name
Journal ISSN
0010-0277
1873-7838
1873-7838
Volume Title
213
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Publisher DOI
Sponsorship
MRC (unknown)
Medical Research Council (MC_UU_00005/11)
Medical Research Council (MC_UU_00005/11)