ABSTRACT

Since 1956, when the cognitive revolution in psychology began, the science of the mind has grown into a mature discipline (Gardner, 1985). In 1977, the first volume of the journal Cognitive Science appeared and 2 years later the Cognitive Science Society was incorporated in Massachusetts and the Society convened its first meeting in La Jolla, California. The emergence of a journal and a society indicated that 20 years after the revolution, cognitive science had become established as an academic discipline. Over the past 20 years, cognitive science has continued to develop. One mark of a mature science, as Glaser (1988) has said many times, is that a mature science can apply its theories and methods to problems-sometimes even practical ones-outside its field. Furthermore, attempts at such extradisciplinary problem solving can sometimes feed back into the ongoing refinement of basic theories. Mature sciences also share a second characteristic. Although a mature science occupies and gives order to a well consolidated intellectual territory, there is still lively action at the research front where

issues, theories, and methods develop as the discipline attempts to move into new territory.