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Thagard Chapter 1

1.) What is the explanatory structure according to Thagard?

2.) According to Thagard what is the fundamental analogy of cognitive science and to what theory does this analogy give rise?

3.) What criteria does Thagard give for evaluating theories of mental representation?     

Simon

1.) What does Simon see as the new concept of explanation introduced by cognitive science?

2.) What are the "somewhat novel" methods for gathering and interpreting evidence of which Simon speaks?

3.) Simon tells us that there are multiple levels of explanation in cognitive science.  What are the two levels to which Simon devotes his attention?  What does he see as the relationship between these levels?

4.) What does Simon mean by "heuristic search"?

5.) What does Simon mean by "problem space"?

6.) What is intuition for Simon and what role does it play in human performance?

Thagard Chapter 2

1.) What is a "cognitive architecture"?

2.)What does Thagard mean by "representational power"?

3.) What is problem solving generally, and what are the three examples Thagard gives us?

4.) What does Thagard mean by learning?

5.) What does Thagard mean by language?

6.) What would count as psychological plausibility?

7.) What would count as neurological plausibility?

8.) What does Thagard mean by the "practical applicability" criterion?