Cognitive science is the scientific study of the mind and its processes. It examines what cognitive scientists call “the mental machinery.” This machinery includes perception, attention, language, memory, thinking, and consciousness.
Cognitive science is a relatively young field that grew out of research conducted in the middle of the 20th century by researchers in psychology, linguistics, artificial intelligence, philosophy, and neuroscience. The term “cognitive science” was first coined by Christopher D. Green in his book Cognition: An Introduction (1972).
The interdisciplinary nature of cognitive science means that it borrows from many other fields. For example, research on memory draws on findings from biology and psychology; research on language relies heavily on linguistics; and research on problem solving takes inspiration from mathematics and computer science.
Today, cognitive science is a thriving field with researchers working at the intersection of all these disciplines to advance our understanding of the human mind.