Describing cognitive science as a new discipline based upon the integration of elements of psychology, computer science, linguistics, philosophy, and education, this paper argues that such a discipline has important implications for the field of communication. Following an overview of the literature of cognitive science, the paper offers an explication of the computational paradigm underlying the new discipline. It then refutes attacks that have been made upon the paradigm's assumption that artificial intelligence research and psychological experimentation should be mutually heuristic because they both seek a unified theory of the cognitive processes performed by any system capable of certain tasks. In an illustration of the kinds of theoretical concepts that are emerging from cognitive science, the paper describes a recently proposed theory of story comprehension. In conclusion, the paper argues that cognitive science has important implications for communication research in the areas of content analysis methodology, the theory of messages, and the theory of communicative competence, and it outlines a proposed research project designed to illustrate those implications. (Author/FL)