Cognitive Semiotics

Cognitive Science is the study of cognition in humans, non-human animals, and machines. It brings together psychology, linguistics, computer science, neuroscience, anthropology, philosophy, and other domains. Typically, the foci of Cognitive Science are identified as learning, development, perception, attention, reasoning, emotion, consciousness, memory, language, creativity, and intelligence, and its are identified as better understanding the mind, advancing practical knowledge of learning, and developing intelligent devices.

Semiotic Pedagogy starts with (1) the assertion that schools should be defined as places of learning rather than places of teaching and (2) the assumption that Semiotics with its foci of meaning and communication, is especially well fitted to understanding and informing formal education. Semiotic Pedagogy thus regards the educational setting in terms of a community of interpretation.

Semiotics is concerned with the role of signs in making meaning. Semiotics assumes that individuals cannot have direct knowledge of things and events, and so “sign” is posited as a sort of mediator between one’s mind and an object or event. That is, a sign is a stand-in that represents something else. Most signs are arbitrary (i.e., inherently meaningless), and may be icons (images), pointers (that direct attentions), or symbols (e.g., numbers, words, gestures).