Robots have often been used as experimental tools to understand cognition. During the Cybernetic era, mechanistic theories of learning, memory, and sensory-motor coordination were developed using robotic models. After the cognitive revolution, robots were used to model problem-solving and general intelligence.
From the last decades of the XX century on, a multitude of hypotheses on the cognition of invertebrate and vertebrate animals, including humans, have been addressed using so-called biorobots and biologically inspired robots. More recently, bionic systems – connecting artificial devices with biological tissues – and interactive robots have been used to model social cognition and cognitive-motor control.
Despite the richness of empirical studies, the idea that robots and bionic systems (R&BS) can be used as experimental platforms in cognitive science has not gained widespread consensus, and many scholars maintain that R&Bs provide idealized and distorted, hence scientifically useless, models of animal and human cognition.
The goal of this Research Topic is to take some steps towards understanding what R&BS can offer to the study of cognition. More specifically:
? What research questions, within psychology and cognitive science, can be sensibly addressed using R&BS from now on?
? What important scientific results have been obtained using R&BS in the study of cognition?
? Can R&BS help in the modeling, explanation, prediction, or even discovery of new cognitive phenomena? When should R&BS be preferred to more conventional tools for modeling and intervention?
? What R&BS-supported experimental paradigms and methods can be adopted for the study of cognition? Is it possible to formulate methodological guidelines for the setting-up and running of “good” cognitive experiments using R&BS?
? What levels of idealization, approximation, and biomimicry should be chosen in R&BS implementation?
? Under what theoretical, methodological, conceptual, and philosophical assumptions can the behavior of R&BS be brought to bear on cognition?
These questions are best addressed with reference to concrete examples of R&BS-supported studies on cognition.
We encourage a variety of article types, including (but not limited to) the following:
? Original research using empirical studies to address the questions above, or illustrate interesting methodological issues.
? Methods papers on methodological analyses of R&BS-supported studies, experimental strategies, and paradigms.
? Reviews and meta-analyses on the use of R&BS in cognitive science, or on their role in understanding cognitive phenomena.
? Hypothesis and Theory submissions on philosophical reflections on the nature of the scientific knowledge acquired through R&BS, supported by examples taken from the literature.
Robots have often been used as experimental tools to understand cognition. During the Cybernetic era, mechanistic theories of learning, memory, and sensory-motor coordination were developed using robotic models. After the cognitive revolution, robots were used to model problem-solving and general intelligence.
From the last decades of the XX century on, a multitude of hypotheses on the cognition of invertebrate and vertebrate animals, including humans, have been addressed using so-called biorobots and biologically inspired robots. More recently, bionic systems – connecting artificial devices with biological tissues – and interactive robots have been used to model social cognition and cognitive-motor control.
Despite the richness of empirical studies, the idea that robots and bionic systems (R&BS) can be used as experimental platforms in cognitive science has not gained widespread consensus, and many scholars maintain that R&Bs provide idealized and distorted, hence scientifically useless, models of animal and human cognition.
The goal of this Research Topic is to take some steps towards understanding what R&BS can offer to the study of cognition. More specifically:
? What research questions, within psychology and cognitive science, can be sensibly addressed using R&BS from now on?
? What important scientific results have been obtained using R&BS in the study of cognition?
? Can R&BS help in the modeling, explanation, prediction, or even discovery of new cognitive phenomena? When should R&BS be preferred to more conventional tools for modeling and intervention?
? What R&BS-supported experimental paradigms and methods can be adopted for the study of cognition? Is it possible to formulate methodological guidelines for the setting-up and running of “good” cognitive experiments using R&BS?
? What levels of idealization, approximation, and biomimicry should be chosen in R&BS implementation?
? Under what theoretical, methodological, conceptual, and philosophical assumptions can the behavior of R&BS be brought to bear on cognition?
These questions are best addressed with reference to concrete examples of R&BS-supported studies on cognition.
We encourage a variety of article types, including (but not limited to) the following:
? Original research using empirical studies to address the questions above, or illustrate interesting methodological issues.
? Methods papers on methodological analyses of R&BS-supported studies, experimental strategies, and paradigms.
? Reviews and meta-analyses on the use of R&BS in cognitive science, or on their role in understanding cognitive phenomena.
? Hypothesis and Theory submissions on philosophical reflections on the nature of the scientific knowledge acquired through R&BS, supported by examples taken from the literature.
