Conference on attention suggests fruitful interactions between experimental science and philosophy
The Philosophy Department of University College Dublin recently held a conference on the study of attention that brought together researchers in neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy. Although these disciplines have previously been united under the broad rubric of "cognitive science", opportunities for researchers with different academic backgrounds to consider and exchange ideas on a the same topic are relatively rare.
The areas discussed were diverse, from the philosophical relationship between attention and consciousness (is attention necessary and sufficient for consciousness?), to identifying the neurons capable of enhancing perception. However, some common themes emerged, such as the apparent link between attention and action, the inherent difficulty faced by cognitive neuroscientists who attempt to understand poorly defined but commonly understood cognitive concepts, like attention, in neural terms, and an examination of what is lost in the adoption of an operational definition of a particular cognitive process for experimental study.
Overall participants found the discussion to be highly stimulating, suggesting that a collaborative interplay between disciplines, wherein neuroscience and psychology can inform/constrain philosophical theories about cognition, and philosophical questions can drive experimental investigations, may prove synergistic.
The Philosophy Department of University College Dublin recently held a conference on the study of attention that brought together researchers in neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy. Although these disciplines have previously been united under the broad rubric of "cognitive science", opportunities for researchers with different academic backgrounds to consider and exchange ideas on a the same topic are relatively rare.
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| Title | Author | Excerpt |
|---|---|---|
| From connecting the dots to integrating surfaces: bridging levels of analysis in neuroscience | Katy Armstrong | At the annual Society for Neuroscience meeting, which hosts roughly 30,000 researchers each year (1), one can attend talks by eminent scientists on topics ranging from the structure of individual molecules to the foibles of moral reasoning. The tremendous breadth of research in the neurosciences raises the question of whether and how different levels of scientific analysis can be integrated to form a mechanistic understanding of cognitive phenomena. |