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What
is Cognitive Science?
According
to the interpretation of Julia Lee Ai Cheng, today, cognitive science, refers
to “the scientific study of the mind; how we think, perceive, remember and
learn “. Have you ever asked yourself
how you think, perceive, remember and learn something, for example, driving a
car, learn a language, social skills,
how to use the computer, how to make a cheese cake and the like?
There
are many interesting facts about the working of the human mind. How do we remember things? Where do we store the information? How do we retrieve the information at
will? How do we recall the past events
when we are stimulated by an object or a scene and the association of thoughts
with the event.
It is the power of
memory that we remember what we have learnt or experienced. Otherwise, you may find difficulty to locate
your own house or where you park your car each time. Cognitive science creates the awareness of
how a person thinks, perceives, remembers and learns. Recall how you can remember things that you
did, learnt and experienced. For example,
I always can remember that the things where I put if I put the things at the
same place. I can even find it in
darkness because my mental map has the record where it is. However,
if I change the place frequently, I often get mixed up and fail to find
the thing.
Hence, I believe
children learn better if teachers are consistent in their delivery of the
lessons. There must be a system to
follow so that it is easier for students to learn. That is why a child as small as 2 or 3 years
old can count or say the English alphabet without much difficulty /
hassle.
In the language
learning, a child hears and codes the language.
Some scientists even believe a child learns as early as prenatal
stage. Though most children only speak
at 1 and a half or 2, they actually learn the language he / she is exposed to
in silence through his / her interaction with adults. So, we, adults, never underestimates the
learning power of an infant! (We have to
watch our language. Children pick up
every word we utter.)
People say, “We
are what we eat.” and in parallel, we
can also say, “We are what we experienced and learnt and how we were taught as
well as what we are exposed to.” A
famous philosopher said, “I think therefore I am.” (if I am mistaken, his name
is Voltaire). Our thoughts are based on
what we experienced, learnt and how we were taught as well as what we are
exposed to. Thus, I really believe in
the power of family, school and social education on the development of a
person. Of course, life-long learning
helps us to readjust and improve ourselves all the time.
Cognitive
science gives light to us that there is immense capacity of human mind to
improve and progress. Hence, life-long learning makes sense. That’s why we often heard people say, “We
learn from experience and mistakes.” It
is because we have the record of the events somewhere in the human mind. (I guess there are numerous storerooms in our
brain.)
Imagine
some people who lost their memory due to accidents or illnesses or senile. They forgot almost everything, including
their family members, not to say the languages they knew once and other
skills. Have you come across someone
suffering from the disease called Alzheimer.
(People say it happens mostly to old folks.) (Recently, I read an
article from the newspaper saying that it was due to pesticides.) Cognitive science deals with all these things
concerning human mind. I hope one day
scientists will find the solution for the cure.
As
we all know that our brain is the most delicate organ in our system. It is so delicate that the scientists
studying the human brain just can’t go as fast as the other scientists dealing
with other organs in the human body. Hence,
the knowledge of the human brain is just at a primary stage of development. Cognitive science really includes “researchers from various fields such as
philosophy, psychology, artificial intelligence, neuroscience, linguistics,
education and anthropology in the interdisciplinary study of the mind“. It is from these different aspects of studies
to get better insight of the human mind.
It
is interesting to note that the way how a child perceives (see, hear and
understand ) the world makes the difference of an individual. This, of course, has something to do with the
environmental stimulation and response.
It , in turn, influence the mindset of a person, do you agree? (That is why I often see that an individual
is at the mercy of his / her environment.).
It is not surprising that different individuals having different opinions
on an issue as an individual have
different perception of the world. No
matter how different an individual holds to the opinions of an issue, I think
the universal truths and facts are the standard to follow as an individual
reaches the stage of intellectual maturity.
Every progressive individual learns to adjust and improve all the time
for the good and better. This is the
reason why development of human capital is considered a very important factor
for a strong nation.
It
is due to the research that the
scientists came to know that the human brain can be divided into two
hemispheres. Did you know that our
right and left our brain function differently? According to the scientific report, our right
brain is more inclined to imagination, arts, creativity, music and aesthetic things whereas our left brain is
mainly concerned with the power of reasoning, language, facts, laws, physics and the other scientific
stuffs. Hence, the strength of the side
of the brain becomes a factor to decide the aptitude / interest of a
person. Did you know that the right or
left handed person has something to do with the power of the left or right
brain? It is believed that the left-handed
person tends to have stronger development of the right brain and the right-handed
person has the stronger left brain power.
To
keep both sides of the brain in optimal state is proved to be the most
effective tool to learning. What I mean
here is to use both sides of the brain properly and in a good balance. You will see that it really works wonder to
your life. To prove with an evidence,
when my eldest brother went to
to study, he was 37 years old with a family (3 children and a wife). He had to work and study at the same
time. To cope with the task, he made
full use of the theory of keeping the
brain in the optimal state. That is to
use both sides of the brain: when a
person is at work or studies, he uses his left brain; our brain like our body will get tired with a
certain amount of work. It is time a
person must relax with some kinds of recreations. He/ She
may listen to music, draw, look at his fish, flowers, cook, go fishing,
watch TV and so on to activate his / her right brain and let the left brain
take a break.
Well,
this is how my eldest brother planned and allocated time for his studies. He usually studied for 45 minutes and stopped
for 15 minutes for relaxation. He said
he looked at his fish to relax. (It is
his way as he likes fish. It may not work in you.) Then he went back to study for another 45
minutes and stopped again. He exercised
strong self-discipline. Thus he got the master degree in 2 and a half
years. Actually, he needed 5 years to
complete because he did the course
part-time. The proverb, “All work and no
play makes Jack a dull boy” is indeed
true.
There
are a lot more to tell, but due to the time constraint, I must stop here. To conclude, I would recommend you to read
the book, entitled “Cognitive Science” and another book “A complete idiot’s
guide: Improving your memory”. You can get them from the Sibu public
library. I have read them. The books are interesting and informative. They will help you to gain better
understanding of yourself how you think, perceive, remember and learn
something.
