What is empirical evidence in cognitive science?
Empirical evidence consists of knowledge obtained through sense experience or experimental procedures, acting as a cornerstone for scientific methodology. In fields like cognitive psychology, it serves to study human mental processes by moving past behaviorist limits and testing hypotheses against observable phenomena. This approach contrasts with purely a priori reasoning or unobservable mental states by requiring public, testable, and falsifiable data.
What we know
- Empirical evidence is defined as knowledge obtained through sense experience or experimental procedures. [1, 2]
- Cognitive psychology investigates human mental processes such as attention, memory, and reasoning through scientific study. [4]
- Empiricism holds that true knowledge or justification comes primarily or solely from sensory experience and empirical evidence. [3]
- In the philosophy of science, scientific evidence must be public and uncontroversial to arbitrate between competing theories and foster consensus. [2]
Still open
- It is disputed to what extent objects accessible only to aided perception, such as bacteria seen through a microscope, should be regarded as observable.
Where to go next
- what caused itHow did cognitive psychology break away from behaviorism?
- compared withWhat is the role of empirical evidence in epistemology?
- how it workedHow do experiments differ from passive observation in science?
- the bigger pictureWhat are formal sciences and how do they differ from empirical fields?
- how we knowHow does empiricism compare to rationalism regarding innate ideas?
- an unexpected connectionHow does legal reasoning rely on empirical evidence?While empirical evidence is most commonly associated with natural and cognitive sciences, it also plays a critical role in completely different domains such as law and epistemology.
Sources
- [1]empirical evidence (Wikidata Q83021) · CC0 1.0
- [2]Empirical evidence · CC BY-SA 4.0
- [3]Empiricism · CC BY-SA 4.0
- [4]Cognitive psychology · CC BY-SA 4.0
- [5]Branches of science · CC BY-SA 4.0