[10] “Mounting evidence suggests that even bacteria grapple with problems long familiar to cognitive scientists, including: integrating information from multiple sensory channels to marshal an effective response to fluctuating conditions; making decisions under conditions of uncertainty; communicating with conspecifics and others (honestly and deceptively); and coordinating collective behaviour to increase the chances of survival.”[11] Without thinking or perceiving as humans would have it, an act of basic cognition is arguably a simple step-by-step process through which an organism senses a stimulus, then finds an appropriate response in its repertoire and enacts the response.
[16] Also known as the Santiago School, the biology of cognition is based on the work of Francisco Varela and Humberto Maturana,[17] who crafted the doctrine of autopoiesis.
Aside from an essay regarding Goodwin's conception by Margaret Boden in 1980, the next appearance of 'cognitive biology' as a phrase in the literature came in 1986 from a professor of biochemistry, Ladislav Kováč.
Kováč's continued advocacy has had a greater influence in his homeland, Slovakia, than elsewhere partly because several of his most important papers were written and published only in Slovakian.
By the 1990s, breakthroughs in molecular, cell, evolutionary, and developmental biology generated a cornucopia of data-based theory relevant to cognition.
A closely related thirty page paper was published the following year: “Overview: Bioenergetics between chemistry, genetics and physics.” (Kováč, 1987).
This means first assuming a meaningful degree of continuity among different types of organisms—an assumption borne out more and more by comparative biology, especially genomics—studying simple model systems (e.g., microbes, worms, flies) to understand the basics, then scaling up to more complex examples, such as mammals and primates, including humans.
The host of the group's website has said elsewhere[29] that cognitive biology requires a biogenic approach, having identified ten principles of biogenesis in an earlier work.
[30] The first four biogenic principles are quoted here to illustrate the depth at which the foundations have been set at the Adelaide school of cognitive biology: The words 'cognitive' and 'biology' are also used together as the name of a category.
As it gained momentum, the growth of cognitive science in subsequent decades seemed to offer a big tent to a variety of researchers.
[42] Meanwhile, breakthroughs in molecular, cell, evolutionary, and developmental biology generated a cornucopia of data-based theory relevant to cognition.
The papers were listed under four headings, each representing a different domain of requisite cognitive ability: (i) space, (ii) qualities and objects, (iii) numbers and probabilities, and (iv) social entities.
A final example of categorical use comes from an author's introduction to his 2011 publication on the subject, Cognitive Biology: Dealing with Information from Bacteria to Minds.