What is cognitive science and how does it apply to the Catalyst curriculum?
Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary study of the mind and its processes which combines approaches from psychology, philosophy, computer science, cognitive anthropology, linguistics, artificial intelligence, neuroscience, and more. Cognitive scientists examine processes such as attention, memory, language, decision-making and problem-solving.
Many of the aspects of the Catalyst curriculum can benefit from understanding the research and findings in this field. Much of the research has been applied to educational settings and practices in particular transfer of skills which is essential to our new curriculum. In addition to informing our pedagogy in Catalyst (and our content area courses), cognitive science also can be viewed as a model for our curriculum as it is interdisciplinary in its own nature, much like Catalyst is designed to be.