One of the purposes of this blog is to promote the field that is near and dear to me, cognitive science. Posts on what I think are interesting or socially/politically-relevant cognitive science topics is one way to do that. Another way would be to engage people more directly. I get emails fairly frequently from students who are interested in grad school in cognitive science, or people who are in other disciplines but want to learn more about cognitive science. A good way for students to prepare, or people outside of cog sci but interested to learn more, is to read books on the topic. I thought it might be interesting, then, to have a sort of blogosphere reading group for people interested in cognitive science (I owe the idea of a blog reading group to Clark). We could read the books and discuss them on our individual blogs, in comments, or even through emails. It would only take a few interested individuals for me to participate, though naturally, the more the better. No special expertise would be required, of course, though anyone out there in cognitive science or related disciplines would be welcome to participate. You don't have to have a blog, either. You can participate in the discussion through comments or email.
I have a few ideas for books that might be interesting to read, but we can work out the specifics of what to read and how we'll go about talking about it when we've got a list of people who are interested, and what cog sci topics they might be interested in. So, if you think this is something you'd like to do, leave a comment or email me (if you leave a comment, be sure to leave an email address).
UPDATE: It looks like there's definitely enough interest to do this. I'm going to wait until Monday for people to join in (which is not to say that you can't join in after Monday). Then I'll send an email to everyone who's expressed an interest in participating, and we can work out the specifics.
22 comments:
Chris,
That sounds really interesting. I would like to participate.
Eric
three_seeds@yahoo.com
Yes, yes, yes! Fabulous idea--thanks for taking the initiative to set this up. Your cogsci posts were the reason I was drawn to your blog in the first place. :) My email address is sjbrodwall at gmail dot com.
I would love to participate.
-Jesse
jessecog at gmail dot com
I'm in.
I am interested too. (muness@gmail.com)
Chris, I am also interested in cognitive science, developmental psychology and AI. I just ran across your blog within the last 10 days, so I am catching up on the "backblog". I have some comments and questions but will hold off until I've read more. Anyway, I would love to be in on the reading group. I am at steven_meyerson@hotmail.com. btw, do you prefer cognitive science to cognitive psychology? Steve
sign me up!
-Mark (AshikKerib gmail.com)
Steve,
I am a cognitive psychologist, but my interests, and my work even, tend to span the whole of cognitive science. I'm not much of a modeler, and much of the heavy AI/robotics stuff is beyond me, but I still find it interesting.
I'm game. :)
sean | at | voisen | dot | org
Speaking of CogSci books, I forgot to mention, I'm reading "Being There" by Andy Clark right now. It's all about embodied cognition, and though I've just started reading, it's proving to be quite interesting (though the opening chapters do seem to be pretty robotics-heavy).
Sean, Being There is a pretty good book. I don't always agree with Clark, but his ideas are always interesting.
I'd like to get in on this as well. I dropped out of college 9 years ago and will be trying again this fall, intending to major in Cog Sci. So your idea sounds like a great way to try and get the ol' noggin back into shape.
I have a gmail account with the same username I used to post this comment.
Definitely interested... Where do I find out more?
okay, I'm interested too. Worked as an engineer, part of the research team, at the faculty of psychology, university of Amsterdam. Worked on (visual) stimuli research.
alfons DOT hoogervorst AT gmail DOT com
Dan, leave your email here, or send me an email, and I'll add you to the list.
Great idea. Keep me informed at my hotmail dot com account, under the name blarghblog.
Hi Chris. My name is Michael. I would really enjoy reading the chosen books and following the discussions. I am somewhat new to cognitive science and the underlying conceptual issues, so I may have few (or no) insights to offer. But, I would love to participate and learn.
My email is one_with_the_void@hotmail.com
Sounds cool -- add my r.chappell gmail account to the list :)
Hi Chris and all,
I would like to participate :)
Buket
buketu@gmail.com
I'm interested.
egoist@gmail.com
sign me up!
mklebel@gmail.com
hi, i find this old blog, but i'm very interested in cognitive science. still is posible belong your group?
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