Interesting, thanks. I was surprised that you appreciated Bermudez making himself invisible, given how much it irked me. Also, I hadn’t considered the value of learning the history of cognitive science. This book did indeed transmit that information well.
The book felt noisy in part because I already knew a lot of the information on a superficial level (via introductory biology, psychology, information theory, and artificial intelligence courses). I assume that the target audience of the course list has similar background knowledge. People who violate that assumption will glean more from this book.
Much of my malcontent stemmed from the framing. I expected data density (Heuristics and Biases set a high bar). I found broad shallow summaries and a lot of history. There are audiences to which I’d recommend this book (with some caveats), but it doesn’t feel like it belongs in the same list as Heuristics and Biases and Bayesian Modeling and Inference.
Then again, Cognitive Science is a young field that does not yet lend itself to technicality. The type of book I was hoping for may not yet exist. And unfortunately, I’m not in a position to suggest alternatives.
I appreciate the tips. Don’t sink too much time into it: Cognitive Science had plenty of “Further Reading” suggestions that I can draw from. I think Kaj_Sotala might be on to something in the comment below: in order to get the depth/data I was looking for, I may have better luck reading focused texts rather than searching for One Cognitive Science Textbook to Rule Them All. I’d ask for suggestions, but at a glance it seems like the remainder of the MIRI course list will suffice :-)
Interesting, thanks. I was surprised that you appreciated Bermudez making himself invisible, given how much it irked me. Also, I hadn’t considered the value of learning the history of cognitive science. This book did indeed transmit that information well.
The book felt noisy in part because I already knew a lot of the information on a superficial level (via introductory biology, psychology, information theory, and artificial intelligence courses). I assume that the target audience of the course list has similar background knowledge. People who violate that assumption will glean more from this book.
Much of my malcontent stemmed from the framing. I expected data density (Heuristics and Biases set a high bar). I found broad shallow summaries and a lot of history. There are audiences to which I’d recommend this book (with some caveats), but it doesn’t feel like it belongs in the same list as Heuristics and Biases and Bayesian Modeling and Inference.
Then again, Cognitive Science is a young field that does not yet lend itself to technicality. The type of book I was hoping for may not yet exist. And unfortunately, I’m not in a position to suggest alternatives.
I’ve now skimmed through The Cognitive Sciences: An Interdisciplinary Approach, and I’m pretty sure you would dislike it even more than the Bermudez book. The other one I linked above seems even worse, from its Amazon reviews. :(
I appreciate the tips. Don’t sink too much time into it: Cognitive Science had plenty of “Further Reading” suggestions that I can draw from. I think Kaj_Sotala might be on to something in the comment below: in order to get the depth/data I was looking for, I may have better luck reading focused texts rather than searching for One Cognitive Science Textbook to Rule Them All. I’d ask for suggestions, but at a glance it seems like the remainder of the MIRI course list will suffice :-)