A Framework of Defining, Modeling, and Analyzing Cognition Mechanisms
This work addresses the need for a unified approach to study cognition across fields like AI and neuroscience, though it appears incremental as it builds on existing mechanistic perspectives without introducing a new paradigm.
The paper tackles the challenge of systematically defining and analyzing cognition mechanisms by proposing a framework that includes terminology, a mathematical model based on directed graphs, and standards for visualization, applied to examples to illustrate its utility.
Cognition is a core part of and a common topic among philosophy of mind, psychology, neuroscience, AI, and cognitive science. Through a mechanistic lens, I propose a framework of defining, modeling, and analyzing cognition mechanisms. Firstly, appropriate terms are introduced and used in explanations related to the framework and within the definition of a mechanism. I implicitly contend that this terminology essentially characterizes a conceptual world required for discussions in this paper. Secondly, a mathematical model of a mechanism based on directed graphs is proposed. Thirdly, the definition of a base necessary for a mechanism to be classified as a cognition mechanism is proposed. I argue that the cognition base has the features of the cognition self of humans. Fourthly, three ways to mechanistically look at mechanisms is defined and specific instances of them are suggested. Fifthly, standards for visualization and presentation of mechanisms, cognition mechanisms, and the instances to mechanistically look at them are suggested and used to analyze cognition mechanisms through appropriate examples. Finally, the features of this paper are discussed and prospects of further development of the proposed framework are briefly expressed.