Neurocomputing 43 (2002) 319–320

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Book reviews1

An Invitation to Cognitive Science. Second edition. Methods, Models and Conceptual Issues.
D. Scarborough and S. Sternberg (Eds.); MIT Press, Cambridge, 1998, pp. 950. ISBN 0-262-65046-0.

This book is an overview of cognitive science, accessible to the advanced undergraduate, that covers
all the major areas of this important &eld. The book is written by multiple authors, but is uni&ed
by an editor’s introduction to each chapter, and by a consistency of organization and style. The
book is perhaps best regarded as a companion to an ordinary textbook. In many cases, the author
presents his=her own opinions about an area, and defers alternate viewpoints and technical details to
the reference section.
Each chapter is intended to be read as a self-contained unit, if necessary, in isolation from other
chapters. This means that the fundamental intellectual assumptions of an area are summarized at the
beginning of each chapter, and each chapter achieves some level of closure at the end. For such a
lengthy volume (over 900pp.), this is an important constraint. Unlike Sheherezade’s captor, who had
to wait anxiously each night for the conclusion of last night’s episode, the reader can set this book
aside for a few nights without losing track of the story as a whole.
Some chapters are highly informative, and attempt to provide an overview of an entire area of
investigation or methodology. Prof. Wickens’ chapter on statistical methods covers all the major topics
that one would expect in an introductory course: a sample experiment; the role of statistics in evaluating
research results; the problem of variability; population versus samples; hypothesis testing; decision
theory; analysis of variance; contingency tables; correlation and multivariate analysis. Detailed formulas
and calculations obviously cannot be covered in such a short space. However, the reader emerges,
after completing this chapter, with a good sense of what statistics is all about: why, how to, and how
far you can reach with statistical reasoning.
Other chapters are polemical rather than instructional. Prof. Lewontin’s chapter assumes a single
point of view on the evolution of cognition: it cannot be proved, period. The author repeats this
conviction in the form of an intellectual spat with the editor’s review as the &nal section in the
chapter. In building his case, Prof. Lewontin lays out many of the cardinal arguments of evolution-
ary theory, and explains how they might (but do not) apply to the evolution of cognition. These
arguments include analogy=homology arguments, such as the panda’s thumb and the whale’s tail; the
evolution of moth coloring during the English industrial revolution; and linguistic studies in primates
and cetaceans. Whether or not the reader accepts the author’s conclusion, the argument is impressive,
and the intellectual tour alone makes the chapter worth reading.
Another chapter that is richly laden with low-hanging intellectual fruit is Prof. Anderson’s chapter
on learning arithmetic with a neural network. Although clearly comfortable with convoluted scienti&c
ideas, Prof. Anderson has a peppy writing style, and a remarkable ability to reduce complex concepts
to their essentials. The answers to many of those nagging questions about science and mathematics
that you were embarrassed to ask in class, are dashed o; in a paragraph or two in this chapter. For
example, what is the di;erence between a biological neural net (as we currently understand it) and the
mathematical formalism? What is “associative inference” in humans and in computers? How might

1 Material to be included in this section can be submitted to: Prof. K.J. Cios, Computer Science

and Engineering Dept., University of Colorado at Denver, Campus Box 109, 1200 Larimer Street,
Denver, CO 80217-3364, USA. E-mail: kcois@carbon.cudenver.edu

0925-2312/02/$ - see front matter
c 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 9 2 5 - 2 3 1 2 ( 0 1 ) 0 0 6 6 3 - 4
320 Book reviews / Neurocomputing 43 (2002) 319–320

one envision a mathematical proof, such as the in&nite-prime-number theorem of number theory? How
did Einstein envision special relativity?
Readers of this book who are most interested in neural nets as computing devices will be dis-
appointed. The book discusses some computer algorithms, but is aimed primarily at understanding
biological processes. We learn about how humans distinguish, say, a lower-case c from a lower-case
e, but not how optical character recognition software solves the same problem; how a human &nds a
face in a crowd, but not how computer software addresses this problem.
The short biographies at the end of each chapter are fun to read. Some of the authors seem to
have led fairly humdrum academic lives; but others’ lives have zigzagged along interesting pathways.
One author read science &ction while attending elementary school in a “friendly, relaxed backwater”;
squandered his predoctoral years seeking intelligence among garden slugs; and then spent two exciting
postdocs studying human cognition.
This book will appeal to the intelligent but discontented undergraduate or graduate student in &elds
akin to cognitive science, including psychology, philosophy, mathematics, and biophysics. There is a
range of opinions, presented aggressively by their champions in academia; current controversies are
bared and explored; yet behind it all, the scienti&c underpinnings are solid. I highly recommend the
book.

G. William Moorea; b; c
a Pathologyand Laboratory Medicine Service,
VA Maryland Health Care System,
Baltimore, Maryland, USA
b Department of Pathology,

University of Maryland School of Medicine,

VA Maryland Health Care System,
Baltimore, Maryland, USA
c Department of Pathology,

The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions,

Baltimore, Maryland, USA