Introduction to Computational Cultural Psychology

Reviews / Votes

'The cognitive sciences have been motivated and guided by the premise that human mentality can be modeled in computational ways through algorithms and other computer formats. The underlying assumption has always been that cognition can be studied as a universal state of the brain independently of its location in space and time. This book challenges this assumption by showing, brilliantly, how cognition is an intricate product of the interaction of the brain, the body, and the situation. Neuman's revision of the algorithmic principle in semiotic terms is truly masterful, showing how computation can serve the modeling process, not dominate it. This work is required reading for all cognitive scientists. It illuminates the core of the modeling problem and shows which path the cognitive sciences must follow in the future in a world that has extended the brain and its capacities in the computational realm of the global village.' Marcel Danesi, University of Toronto and Editor of Semiotica 'Introduction to Computational Cultural Psychology advances the field beyond the thinking of other merely applied paradigm of computational thinking of social science, which could only mediate at best between tools of computational science and its target application the social domain, which is inherently complex. Neuman's brilliant and innovative thinking moves the reader towards a new and comprehensive paradigm on computational cultural psychology - one that allows the field and readers to think and understand computational cultural psychology as a meaning-making system. In doing so, and by the many situational and rich cultural examples, he seduces the reader towards a focus of on the semiotically mediated nature of meaning and system-like thinking of such complex phenomenon of thought in the human mind. This is brilliant and well-articulated must-read for scholars and readers of all level on culture linguistics and computational studies.' Newton Howard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology