With the meeting and greeting of so many people, the same questions always pop up, "How's your family? How old are you now? Where are your parents living now?" ; etc.
However, there was one question that always befuddled me, not because I didn't have an answer, but because the answer always took time to explain: "What do you do right now?"
This question I'd always answer with a similar response; something along the lines of, "I'm a student of Cognitive Science".
Now, there's one more thing about Syrian culture that I really love, and that is: we're a curious people (at least my family is; excuse any generalizations I make: I only make them to give you a sense of the cultural background). So every time I answered this, without fail, came the question, "Wait, how do you pronounce that?".
Another thing that you have to realize about all of these salutations, small talk, and exchanges is that, for the most part, they happen in Arabic. I'm not that great at speaking Arabic, but I can usually get this far into a conversation before switching to English. So, upon making sure that this member of my family can speak my more competent tongue, I repeat the subject that I study, "Cognitive Science: c-o-g-n-i-t-v-e s-c-i-e-n-c-e".
At this point my poor relatives, still wanting to comprehend my subject of study, will grab a paper and pencil and write it down.
Now, you have to remember that all this confusion stems from just the name of the subject that I'm studying, at this point of the conversation we haven't even gotten to the best question, "What is Cognitive Science?"
This question is one that every single Cognitive Scientist I've spoken to has had to simplify and answer. The problem is, not only is the term, "Cognitive Science" new, but it's also the most concise term we can come up with for the broad study that it entails.
Indeed, even when I go out with friends in Vancouver, the same question always comes up, mainly, "What is Cognitive Science?".
You'd think that, even though I've been fascinated with Cognitive Science for years and am the president of the Cognitive Science Student Association, that I'd have an easy answer to this question -- but I didn't.
There was a Halloween party I went downtown with some floormates and, again, the question came up, "What is Cognitive Science?" And once again, with me dressed up in my costume, a stereotypical SFU resident (towel, bathrobe, and sandals), and with this particular questioner dressed as an M & M, I made the same mistake of diving right into answering this question, without forethought or regard to jargon. Needless to say, I received the most puzzled look I've ever seen an M & M give.
It's times like these where I realize that I should really sit down and define, for anyone who wants to know, what Cognitive Science is. So let's give it a go, shall we?
The first thing to understand about this sort of quick party definition is that it's always going to be lacking in one area or another; it's impossible to sum up all the aspects of Cognitive Science into a definition that will keep your inquisitive co-partygoer entertained. So you're going to have to drop any discussion about that pet-project your working on; and leave any talk about Steve Pinker at the door, at least for now.
The other thing you'll need to do is subtly assess your questioner's background: is she or he a college student, university student, a graduate, which subject? ; etc.
And don't forget that even English can have its language barriers if you're caught up in jargon (and I was in Syria, so there's the Arabic language barrier as well).
In fact, when it gets right down to it, Cognitive Science's definition is partially up to your audience. Being able to connect ideas and concepts using metaphors is a start, but what people don't realize is just how broad and interdisciplinary Cognitive Science really is. Of course, as any Cognitive Scientist will tell you, the reason for this is that every task that humans do involves the human brain, and everything that involves the human brain can be studied in order to gain insight of the brain's functions.
Actually, that's a good place to start. Remember the focus of Cognitive Science: to study the human mind.
Keeping the focus of Cognitive Science allows us to examine the reason that people find this subject so fascinating: people are more introspective than we give ourselves credit for. People want to learn more about themselves, they want to understand why they make the decisions that they do, and the want to understand why others make the decisions they do.
But if people find Cognitive Science so interesting, then why don't they know what it is?
The way I see it, people actually do know about the study of Cognitive Science, it's the nomenclature that garners confusion. From Socrates to Descartes; Leibniz to Turing: the philosophy of mind has always been a part of our academic existence; we've just approached it in different ways; primarily, we've approached the philosophies of cognition with introspection, rather than experimental science. And the field has taken new turns with computational advancements, especially in the insights of factor analysis in psychology and biology.
At the same time, it takes abstract thought to approach Cognitive Science from the many disciplines that we do. The study of arts and philosophy have proven to be essential in many approaches to learning about cognition, adding further confusion to our modern definitions.
So what is Cognitive Science? How do we answer this dreaded question? Well, again, it all depends on your inquisitor, but perhaps I may offer a good way to sum it up: The next time you're caught at a party, glass in hand, milling about, making small-talk, meeting new people, and the inevitable question props up, get back to the basics:
Cognitive Science is the study of mind as a problem-solving tool, requiring the close study of interactions both inside and outside the mind in order to gain insight into thought-processes: it is the quest for self-knowledge.
This way, you can answer the question in a way that both leaves the conversation open and makes you seem like a hopeless romantic: partygoers love hopeless romantics.
So until next post, I hope your lives are full of people, parties, and thought-processes.
