Cognitive biology is an emerging science that regards natural cognition as a biological function.p133 in Lyon and Keijzer (2007). It is based on the theoretical assumption that every organism—whether a single cell or multicellular—is continually engaged in systematic acts of cognition coupled with intentional behaviors, i.e., a sensory-motor coupling.Van Duijn, et al. (2006). "Principles of minimal cognition: Casting cognition as sensorimotor coordination." That is to say, if an organism can sense stimuli in its environment and respond accordingly, it is cognitive. Any explanation of how natural cognition may manifest in an organism is constrained by the biological conditions in which its genes survive from one generation to the next.Lyon and Opie (2007). “Prolegomena for a cognitive biology.” And since by Darwinian theory the species of every organism is evolving from a common root, three further elements of cognitive biology are required: (i) the study of cognition in one species of organism is useful, through contrast and comparison, to the study of another species' cognitive abilities;See for example Spetch and Friedman (2006), "Comparative cognition of object recognition". (ii) it is useful to proceed from organisms with simpler to those with more complex cognitive systems,Baluška and Mancuso (2009). Deep evolutionary origins of neurobiology: Turning the essence of 'neural' upside-down. and (iii) the greater the number and variety of species studied in this regard, the more we understand the nature of cognition.Lyon (2013a) and visit the Comparative Cognition Society to enjoy their publication, Comparative Cognition and Behavior Reviews.
Overview While cognitive science endeavors to explain human thought and the conscious mind, the work of cognitive biology is focused on the most fundamental process of cognition for any organism. In the past several decades, biologists have investigated cognition in organisms largeSee for examples Byrne, et al. (2009), "Elephant cognition in primate perspective." and small,For instance, Ben Jacob, et al. (2006). "Seeking the foundations of cognition in bacteria.” both plantAs one example, see Calvo and Keijzer (2009), "Cognition in plants." and animal.Comparative Cognition and Behavior Reviews “Mounting evidence suggests that even bacteria grapple with problems long familiar to cognitive scientists, including: integrating information from multiple sensory channels to marshal an effective response to fluctuating conditions; making decisions under conditions of uncertainty; communicating with conspecifics and others (honestly and deceptively); and coordinating collective behaviour to increase the chances of survival.”Lyon and Opie (2007), “Prolegomena for a cognitive biology.” Without thinking or perceiving as humans would have it, an act of basic cognition is arguably a simple step-by-step process through which an organism senses a stimulus, then finds an appropriate response in its repertoire and enacts the response. However, the biological details of such basic cognition have neither been delineated for a great many species nor sufficiently generalized to stimulate further investigation. This lack of detail is due to the lack of a science dedicated to the task of elucidating the cognitive ability common to all biological organisms. That is to say, a science of cognitive biology has yet to be established.There is no mention of cognitive biology, for example, in Frankish and Ramsey (2012), The Cambridge Handbook of Cognitive Science. Nor is cognitive biology mentioned in Margolis, et al. (2012), The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Cognitive Science. A prolegomenaAt the 2007 meeting of the International Society for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Biology, a paper was presented with the apt title: "Prolegomena for a cognitive biology." See Lyon and Opie (2007). for such science was presented in 2007 and several authorsSee Brian Goodwin and Ladislav Kováč, discussed below. have published their thoughts on the subject since the late 1970s. Yet, as the examples in the next section suggest, there is neither consensus on the theory nor widespread application in practice.
Although the two terms are sometimes used synonymously,See p135, 136, and 150 in Huber and Wilkinson (2012). cognitive biology should not be confused with the biology of cognition in the sense that it is used by adherents to the Chilean School of Biology of Cognition. Also known as the Santiago School, the biology of cognition is based on the work of Francisco Varela and Humberto Maturana,Maturana (1970), “Biology of Cognition.” who crafted the doctrine of autopoiesis. Their work began in 1970 while the first mention of cognitive biology by Brian Goodwin (discussed below) was in 1977 from a different perspective.Goodwin (1977), "Cognitive biology." A copy of this four page paper is difficult to find. However, an eight page paper—Goodwin (1978), "A cognitive view of biological process,"—is easy to procure and uses his own 1977 paper as a reference. A study of the other references in the '78 paper suggests a unique perspective without mention of Maturana or Varela.
History 'Cognitive biology' first appeared in the literature as a paper with that title by Brian C. Goodwin in 1977.Goodwin (1977) "Cognitive biology." There and in several related publicationsGoodwin 1976a, 1976b, and 1978. Goodwin explained the advantage of cognitive biology in the context of his work on morphogenesis. He subsequently moved on to other issues of structure, form, and complexity with little further mention of cognitive biology. Without an advocate, Goodwin's concept of cognitive biology has yet to gain widespread acceptance.
Aside from an essay regarding Goodwin's conception by Margaret Boden in 1980, the next appearance of 'cognitive biology' as a phrase in the literature came in 1986 from a professor of biochemistry, Ladislav Kováč. His conception, based on natural principles grounded in bioenergetics and molecular biology, is briefly discussed below. Kováč's continued advocacy has had a greater influence in his homeland, Slovakia, than elsewhere partly because several of his most important papers were written and published only in Slovak.
By the 1990s, breakthroughs in molecular, cell, evolutionary, and developmental biology generated a cornucopia of data-based theory relevant to cognition. Yet aside from the theorists already mentioned, no one was addressing cognitive biology except for Kováč.
Kováč's cognitive biology Ladislav Kováč's “Introduction to cognitive biology” (Kováč, 1986a) lists ten 'Principles of Cognitive Biology.' A closely related thirty page paper was published the following year: “Overview: Bioenergetics between chemistry, genetics and physics.” (Kováč, 1987). Over the following decades, Kováč elaborated, updated, and expanded these themes in frequent publications, including "Fundamental principles of cognitive biology" (Kováč, 2000), “Life, chemistry, and cognition” (Kováč, 2006a), "Information and Knowledge in Biology: Time for Reappraisal” (Kováč, 2007) and "Bioenergetics: A key to brain and mind" (Kováč, 2008).Although many of his publications are difficult to find, this URL has them all: <http://www.biocenter.sk/lkpublics.html>.
Academic usage
University seminar The concept of cognitive biology is exemplified by this seminar description:The seminar, titled "Cognitive Biology," was presented by Professor William Bechtel in the autumn of 2013 by the Department of Cognitive Science at the University of California, San Diego. The seminar description was followed by the schedule for ten sessions and citations for the several papers to be discussed in each session. The papers cover cognitive aspects for a broad range of motile organisms, beginning with two regarding the cognitive abilities of bacteria. Over the course of ten sessions, the speakers include six biologists, two doctors of psychology, and two doctors of philosophy. The initial session featured the presentation of a paper titled to evoke discussion, "Bacterial Information Processing: Is It Cognition?" The paper's author and host of the seminar sessions was William Bechtel, a philosopher of science who has written extensively on the philosophy and history of cognitive science. See for example Bechtel, W., Abrahamsen, A. and Graham, G. (1998), 'The life of cognitive science', in ed. W. Bechtel and G. Graham, A Companion to Cognitive Science (Malden, MA and Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd.), pp. 1–104. A more recent example: Abrahamsen, A. and Bechtel, W. (2012). History and core themes. In K. Frankish and W. Ramsey, The Cambridge Handbook of Cognitive Science. Cambridge University Press.
University workgroup The University of Adelaide has established a "Cognitive Biology" workgroup using this operating concept:
Members of the group study the biological literature on simple organisms (e.g., nematode) in regard to cognitive process and look for homologues in more complex organisms (e.g., crow) already well studied. This comparative approach is expected to yield simple cognitive concepts common to all organisms. “It is hoped a theoretically well-grounded toolkit of basic cognitive concepts will facilitate the use and discussion of research carried out in different fields to increase understanding of two foundational issues: what cognition is and what cognition does in the biological context.”Lyon, Pamela (2013a). "Foundations for a Cognitive Biology." Published on the homepage of the Cognitive Biology Project at the University of Adelaide. http://www.hss.adelaide.edu.au/philosophy/cogbio/ (Bold letters from original text.)
The group's choice of name, as they explain on a separate webpage, might have been 'embodied cognition'This option perpetuates a bias established by the original interdisciplinary grouping that formed the cognitive sciences in the 1970s: artificial intelligence, linguistics, neuroscience, philosophy, anthropology, and psychology. Clarification of cognition was slow in coming, even as computers and robots became more efficient. Some argued that a cognitive agent had to be embodied to interface with the world, thus excluding stationary computers. So a new member was added to the cognitive sciences, i.e., the science of embodied cognition. Both robot frogs and biological frogs were valid subjects for experiment. or 'biological cognitive science.'Such a name implies that this is just another cognitive science, one among equals. But the group chose 'cognitive biology' for the sake of (i) emphasis and (ii) method. For the sake of emphasis, (i) “We want to keep the focus on biology because for too long cognition was considered a function that could be almost entirely divorced from its physical instantiation, to the extent that whatever could be said of cognition almost by definition had to be applicable to both organisms and machines.” (ii) The method is to “assume (if only for the sake of enquiry) that cognition is a biological function similar to other biological functions—such as respiration, nutrient circulation, waste elimination, and so on.”Lyon (2013b). "Why Cognitive Biology?" http://www.hss.adelaide.edu.au/philosophy/cogbio/why/ .
The method supposes that the genesis of cognition is biological, i.e., the method is biogenic. The host of the group's website has said elsewhereSee also Lyon and Opie (2007) “Prolegomena for a cognitive biology.” that cognitive biology requires a biogenic approach, having identified ten principles of biogenesis in an earlier work.More detail can be found in Lyon (2006), “The biogenic approach to cognition.”. The first four biogenic principles are quoted here to illustrate the depth at which the foundations have been set at the Adelaide school of cognitive biology:
“Complex cognitive capacities have evolved from simpler forms of cognition. There is a continuous line of meaningful descent.”