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6 - Computer modeling of cognitive processes in biblical studies: the primacy of urban Christianity as a test case

from I - Memory and the transmission of biblical traditions

István Czachesz
Affiliation:
University of Heidelberg, Germany
Risto Uro
Affiliation:
University of Helsinki, Finland
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Summary

This chapter has the goal of showing how computer modeling of cognitive and socio-cognitive processes can contribute to biblical studies. The invention of the computer has been a major factor in the early development of cognitive science, offering new ways to think about the human mind. On the one hand, scholars thought of the mind as some kind of computer; on the other hand, the computer provided opportunities to create simulations of cognitive processes. In recent decades, cognitive science partly abandoned the computer metaphor. New developments in brain studies, the emergence of sophisticated neuroimaging technology, as well as new insights in evolutionary psychology inspired biologically grounded, “wet” models of the human mind. Insights about the role of emotions in human behavior and the embodied nature of cognition moved cognitive theorizing further away from the computer metaphor. At the same time, however, computers also changed; it is commonplace that today's home computers (and even smartphones) surpass the computational power of the supercomputers of the 1960s and 1970s. Along with more powerful computers came various new approaches to modeling, such as neural networks, agent-based models, or evolutionary computation. Computer modeling is now capable of capturing various aspects and levels of cognition, including the dynamic structure of memory (including forgetting, blending, and errors), decision making, cooperation in groups (of individuals with complex cognitive abilities), the evolution of successful behavioral strategies, and evolutionary processes in ecological systems.

Type
Chapter
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Mind, Morality and Magic
Cognitive Science Approaches in Biblical Studies
, pp. 77 - 97
Publisher: Acumen Publishing
Print publication year: 2013

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