Foundations of cognitive science : overview

Abstract: "Intelligence is closely related with adaptivity -- with problem-solving, learning, and evolution. A science of intelligent systems has to be a science of adaptive systems, with all which that entails for the difficulty of finding genuine invariants. Some of the invariance in intelligence is imposed by the structure of the inner environment -- the limits, for example, of human short term memory. Some of it is imposed by the outer environment, the need to search very large spaces selectively. Some of the invariance is to be found in the structure of learning systems, rather than in the highly adapted performance systems they produce. But, in cognitive science we must be prepared to recognize that the invariants in an adaptive system are likely to be limited to specific times and places; that in the long run, almost any aspect of them can change adaptively."