Perone Sammy, Simmering Vanessa R
Department of Human Development, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, United States.
Department of Psychology, McPherson Eye Research Institute, and Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States.
Front Psychol. 2019 Aug 2;10:1685. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01685. eCollection 2019.
The study of cognition and its development has long been partitioned into sub-domains, with different tasks designed to assess different constructs and for use during different developmental periods. A central challenge is to understand how a single cognitive system organizes itself across many contexts and developmental periods in which we study it. This article takes a step toward tackling this challenge through a theoretical review of simulations of a dynamic neural field (DNF) model of visuospatial cognitive development. The DNF model simulates basic neurocognitive processes of encoding, maintenance, and long-term memory formation that are coupled to different behavioral systems to generate behaviors required across different tasks used with different age groups. The model simulations reviewed here were initially focused on explaining performance in specific experimental conditions within a developmental period. This article brings to the forefront the larger theoretical goal to understand how a set of basic neurocognitive processes can underlie performance in a wide array of contexts. This review connects behavioral signatures and developmental phenomena from spatial cognition, infant visual exploration, and capacity limits in visual working memory into a single theoretical account of the development of basic visuospatial cognitive processes. Our synthesis yielded three new insights not evident when considering the model simulations in isolation. First, we identified behavior as an emergent product of the neurocognitive processes at work in the model, task context, and development. Second, we show the role of stability of perceptual and memory representations to support behavior within a task and across development. Third, we highlight continuity of ongoing real-time processes at work within and across tasks and over development.
认知及其发展的研究长期以来被划分为不同的子领域，设计了不同的任务来评估不同的结构，并用于不同的发展阶段。一个核心挑战是理解单个认知系统如何在我们研究它的众多背景和发展阶段中自我组织。本文通过对视觉空间认知发展的动态神经场（DNF）模型模拟的理论回顾，朝着应对这一挑战迈出了一步。DNF模型模拟了编码、维持和长期记忆形成的基本神经认知过程，这些过程与不同的行为系统相耦合，以产生不同年龄组在不同任务中所需的行为。这里回顾的模型模拟最初侧重于解释发展阶段内特定实验条件下的表现。本文将理解一组基本神经认知过程如何能够成为广泛背景下表现的基础这一更大的理论目标置于前沿。这一综述将空间认知、婴儿视觉探索以及视觉工作记忆中的容量限制等行为特征和发展现象联系起来，形成了一个关于基本视觉空间认知过程发展的单一理论解释。我们的综合研究产生了三个单独考虑模型模拟时不明显的新见解。第一，我们将行为确定为模型中起作用的神经认知过程、任务背景和发展的一种涌现产物。第二，我们展示了感知和记忆表征的稳定性在支持任务内和发展过程中的行为方面的作用。第三，我们强调了任务内和任务间以及发展过程中持续实时过程的连续性。
