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A cognition paradigm clash: Simon, situated cognition and the interpretation of bounded rationality

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  • Enrico Petracca

Abstract

Simon’s notion of bounded rationality is deeply intertwined with his activity as a cognitive psychologist and founder of so-called cognitivism, a mainstream approach in cognitive psychology until the 1980s. Cognitivism, understood as ‘symbolic information processing,’ provided the first cognitive psychology foundation to bounded rationality. Has bounded rationality since then fully followed the development of cognitive psychology beyond symbolic information processing in the post-Simonian era? To answer this question, this paper focuses on Simon’s opposition during the 1990s to a new (paradigmatic) view of cognition called situated cognition, which has since put into question the entire view in cognitive psychology of humans as symbolic information processors. This paper then reads the cognitivism/situated cognition debate through the lens of current bounded rationality research in economics, in order (i) to inquire into whether it has tackled the issues in that controversy; (ii) to envisage possible new foundations for a cognitive psychology-based bounded rationality.

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  • Enrico Petracca, 2017. "A cognition paradigm clash: Simon, situated cognition and the interpretation of bounded rationality," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(1), pages 20-40, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:jecmet:v:24:y:2017:i:1:p:20-40
    DOI: 10.1080/1350178X.2017.1279742
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    Cited by:

    1. Steve J. Bickley & Benno Torgler, 2021. "Behavioural Economics, What Have we Missed? Exploring “Classical” Behavioural Economics Roots in AI, Cognitive Psychology, and Complexity Theory," CREMA Working Paper Series 2021-21, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).

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