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What Can Cognitive Science Do for People?
Author(s) -
Prather Richard W.,
Benitez Viridiana L.,
Brooks Lauren Kendall,
Dancy Christopher L.,
DilworthBart Janean,
Dutra Natalia B.,
Faison M. Omar,
Figueroa Megan,
Holden LaTasha R.,
Johnson Cameron,
Medrano Josh,
MillerCotto Dana,
Matthews Percival G.,
Manly Jennifer J.,
Thomas Ayanna K.
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
cognitive science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.498
H-Index - 114
eISSN - 1551-6709
pISSN - 0364-0213
DOI - 10.1111/cogs.13167
Subject(s) - cognition , humanity , wonder , lida , field (mathematics) , psychology , quality (philosophy) , cognitive science , globe , rational analysis , cognitive psychology , sociology , epistemology , social psychology , cognitive model , political science , law , philosophy , mathematics , neuroscience , pure mathematics
The critical question for cognitive scientists is what does cognitive science do, if anything, for people? Cognitive science is primarily concerned with human cognition but has fallen short in continuously and critically assessing the who in human cognition. This complacency in a world where white supremacist and patriarchal structures leave cognitive science in the unfortunate position of potentially supporting those structures. We take it that many cognitive scientists operate on the assumption that the study of human cognition is both interesting and important. We want to invoke that importance to note that cognitive scientists must continue to work to show how the field is useful to all of humanity and reflects a humanity that is not white by default. We wonder how much the field has done, and can do, to show that it is useful not only in the sense that we might make connections with researchers in other fields, win grants and write papers, even of the highest quality, but useful in some material way to the billions of non‐cognitive scientists across the globe.