Language & common sense: Integrating across psychology, linguistics, and computer science

The language understanding that underlies state-of-the-art Internet search, machine translation, and dictation software is undeniably impressive. Equally undeniable is that these systems do not really understand language. What is missing? One candidate is common sense. Language is a mechanism for moving ideas from one mind to another – ideas that are meant to be understood in the context of preexisting, interlocking beliefs. Thus, fully exploiting its power may require sophisticated, explicit representations of world knowledge – that is, common sense. That understanding language requires deploying knowledge about the world is not a new observation (cf. Winograd, 1972). However, new opportunities for significant progress have been suddenly opened up by recent, rapid advances in the science of common sense, along with related advances in machine vision, natural language processing, and computational tools for developing more precise cognitive theories (Liang & Potts, 2015; Sonka, Hlavac, & Boyle, 2014; Tenenbaum, Kemp, Griffiths, & Goodman, 2011). This workshop brings together researchers from across the cognitive sciences – including developmental and cognitive psychology, linguistics, natural language processing, artificial intelligence, and robotics – to disseminate recent findings, discuss approaches to future progress, and set an agenda for the field. Given the interdisciplinary nature of the participants and of the research challenges faced, the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society is an ideal venue for these conversations.