Riley Sean N, Davies Jim
Institute of Cognitive Science, Carleton University, 2201 Dunton Tower 1125 Colonel BY Drive, Ottawa, ON K1S 5B6 Canada.
Cogn Neurodyn. 2020 Apr;14(2):239-251. doi: 10.1007/s11571-019-09566-5. Epub 2019 Dec 5.
Mental imagery has long been of interest to the cognitive and neurosciences, but how it manifests itself in the mind and brain still remains unresolved. In pursuit of this, we built a spiking neural model that can perform mental rotation and mental map scanning using strategies informed by the psychology and neuroscience literature. Results: When performing mental map scanning, reaction times (RTs) for our model closely match behavioural studies (approx. 50 ms/cm), and replicate the cognitive penetrability of the task. When performing mental rotation, our model's RTs once again closely match behavioural studies (model: 55-65°/s; studies: 60°/s), and performed the task using the same task strategy (whole unit rotation of simple and familiar objects through intermediary points). Overall, our model suggests: (1) vector-based approaches to neuro-cognitive modelling are well equipped to re-produce behavioural findings, and (2) the cognitive (in)penetrability of imagery tasks may depend on whether or not the task makes use of (non)symbolic processing.
心理意象长期以来一直是认知科学和神经科学感兴趣的领域，但它在心智和大脑中如何表现仍未得到解决。为了探究这一问题，我们构建了一个尖峰神经模型，该模型可以利用心理学和神经科学文献中的策略来执行心理旋转和心理地图扫描。结果：在执行心理地图扫描时，我们模型的反应时间（RTs）与行为研究结果密切匹配（约50毫秒/厘米），并再现了该任务的认知渗透性。在执行心理旋转时，我们模型的反应时间再次与行为研究结果密切匹配（模型：55 - 65°/秒；研究：60°/秒），并且使用相同的任务策略（通过中间点对简单和熟悉的物体进行整体单元旋转）来执行任务。总体而言，我们的模型表明：（1）基于向量的神经认知建模方法能够很好地再现行为研究结果，（2）意象任务的认知（非）渗透性可能取决于该任务是否使用（非）符号处理。
