• Source: Unified Theories of Cognition

Unified Theories of Cognition is a 1990 book by Allen Newell. Newell argues for the need of a set of general assumptions for cognitive models that account for all of cognition: a unified theory of cognition, or cognitive architecture. The research started by Newell on unified theories of cognition represents a crucial element of divergence with respect to the vision of his long-term collaborator, and AI pioneer, Herbert Simon for what concerns the future of artificial intelligence research. Antonio Lieto recently drew attention to such a discrepancy, by pointing out that Herbert Simon decided to focus on the construction of single simulative programs (or microtheories/"middle-range" theories) that were considered a sufficient mean to enable the generalisation of “unifying” theories of cognition (i.e. according to Simon the "unification" was assumed to be derivable from a body of qualitative generalizations coming from the study of individual simulative programs). Newell, on the other hand, didn’t consider the construction of single simulative microtheories a sufficient mean to enable the generalisation of “unifying” theories of cognition and, in fact, started the enterprise of studying and developing integrated and multi-tasking intelligence via cognitive architectures that would have led to the development of the Soar cognitive architecture.




Contents


Newell argues that the mind functions as a single system. He also claims the established cognitive models are vastly underdetermined by experimental data. By cognition, Newell means:

Problem solving, decision making, routine action
Memory, learning, skill
Perception, motor behavior
Language
Motivation, emotion
Imagining, dreaming, daydreaming
After arguing in favor of the development of unified theories of cognition, Newell puts forward a list of constraints to any unified theory, in that a theory should explain how a mind does the following:

Behave flexibly as a function of the environment
Exhibit adaptive (rational, goal-oriented) behavior
Operate in real time
Operate in a rich, complex, detailed environment (Perceive an immense amount of changing detail; use vast amounts of knowledge; and control a motor system of many degrees of freedom)
Use symbols and abstractions
Use language, both natural and artificial
Learn from the environment and from experience
Acquire capabilities through development
Operate autonomously, but within a social community
Be self-aware and have a sense of self
Be realizable as a neural system
Be construable by an embryological growth process
Arise through evolution
Newell's secondary task is to put forward the cognitive architecture Soar as an implementation of a UTC that meets the constraints above. Other efforts at unified theories of cognition cited in the book include ACT-R and the human processor model.




See also


Blue Brain Project
Cognitive architecture
Soar




References






Further reading


Newell, A. (1994).Unified Theories of Cognition, Harvard University Press; Reprint edition, ISBN 0-674-92101-1.
Newell, A. (1973). "You can’t play 20 questions with nature and win: Projective comments on the papers of this symposium". In W. G. Chase (ed.), Visual Information Processing. New York: Academic Press. (Read article online.)




External links


What is a unified theory of cognition?
You can't play 20 questions with nature and win

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• Autopoiesis
• Unified Theories of Cognition
• Allen Newell
• Cognitive architecture
• Soar (cognitive architecture)
• ACT-R
• Cognitive science
• William James Lectures
• Embodied cognition
• History of artificial intelligence
• Distributed cognition