Recently I came across information about a French MSc program in Cognitive Science, which educates computational linguists.
It is not just a European phenomenon. Many schools is the States also like to baptize their Computational Linguistics programs as programs in "Cognitive Science".
Makes me wonder: what is the exact meaning of "cognition" and what is "cognition" about? Since when did a computational science become synonymous to a cognitive science? Are we confusing a computational system (and subsequent methods) with a cognitive system or -come to think- with human cognition?
Implied under the term 'cognition' is of course the modifier "human". 9 out of 10 times when we speak of cognition, we refer to "human cognition" . Why? Simply because it is human to reason and have intelligence, which constitutes "cognition" and "cognitive capabilities".
Computational systems tend to get inspired by or try to emulate human cognition (i.e. the cognitive power of the human brain) but they are far from being cognitive systems. In that respect, studying Computational Linguistics is not the same like studying human cognition unless there is a focus on the brain sciences and neuroscience and the biological (neural) substrate of natural language.
It is not just a European phenomenon. Many schools is the States also like to baptize their Computational Linguistics programs as programs in "Cognitive Science".
Makes me wonder: what is the exact meaning of "cognition" and what is "cognition" about? Since when did a computational science become synonymous to a cognitive science? Are we confusing a computational system (and subsequent methods) with a cognitive system or -come to think- with human cognition?
Implied under the term 'cognition' is of course the modifier "human". 9 out of 10 times when we speak of cognition, we refer to "human cognition" . Why? Simply because it is human to reason and have intelligence, which constitutes "cognition" and "cognitive capabilities".
Computational systems tend to get inspired by or try to emulate human cognition (i.e. the cognitive power of the human brain) but they are far from being cognitive systems. In that respect, studying Computational Linguistics is not the same like studying human cognition unless there is a focus on the brain sciences and neuroscience and the biological (neural) substrate of natural language.