The computer and the mind - An introduction to cognitive science [Book Review]

Johnson-Laird haswrittena book that isasaccessibletotheintelligent high school student as it is to the engineer or computer scientist. Unfortunately, however, this book is not nearly as satisfying as a popular work on physics or mathematics, since cognitive sciencefalls far short of those other sciences in its ability to describe, explain, and predict interesting phenomena. Again and again the author describes fascinating experimental or empirical results, constructs computational models producing similar behavior, and then reaches a dead end. There is simply too little understanding of the mechanisms of brain and mind to assert a connection between the computational models and anything real. The result has too much of the flavor of works on artificial intelligence. What saves Johnson-Laird's book and makes it interesting to the general reader are the philosophical issues that he confronts head on. Johnson-Laird also cites and answers criticisms that he characterizes as metaphysical and those that he characterizes as scientific. Predictably, he concludes in the end that cognitive science is on the right track and that it is leading to thedevelopment of intelligent softwareand a humane technology. He hopes that it will yield advances in psychoanalytic theory and practice as well. The book contains many verbal descriptions of algorithms and models. This material is hard to read straight through, making the book drag a little. The material is fascinating and the author is knowledgeable, but the reader's expectation of increased understanding is constantly frustrated.