Publisher's Synopsis
This text provides a comprehensive presentation of the dynamical approach to cognition. It contains a representative sampling of current research on topics such as perception, speech and language, motor control, decision making and development. Attention is paid throughout to the philosophical foundations of this research programme.;Cognitive science has traditionally been dominated by an AI-based computational paradigm in which cognition is taken to be the manipulation of internal symbols. Even as the potential of this paradigm continues to be explored, limitations are becoming increasingly apparent. Researchers throughout cognitive science have been casting around for alternative theoretical frameworks. Out of this flux has emerged the dynamical concept, according to which cognitive processes are the behaviour of nonlinear dynamical systems and are best studied using the mathematics of dynamical modelling and dynamical systems theory.;This work provides a conceptual and historical overview of the dynamical approach, a tutorial introduction to dynamics for cognitive scientists and a glossary of common terms. Each chapter includes an introduction by the editors, outlining its main ideas and placing it in context, and a guide to further reading.
