Gabora Liane, Beckage Nicole M, Steel Mike
Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia.
Intel Labs.
Top Cogn Sci. 2022 Jan;14(1):163-188. doi: 10.1111/tops.12583. Epub 2021 Nov 21.
In reflexively autocatalytic foodset (RAF)-generated networks, nodes are not only passive transmitters of activation, but they also actively galvanize, or "catalyze" the synthesis of novel ("foodset-derived") nodes from existing ones (the "foodset"). Thus, RAFs are uniquely suited to modeling how new structure grows out of currently available structure, and analyzing phase transitions in potentially very large networks. RAFs have been used to model the origins of evolutionary processes, both biological (the origin of life) and cultural (the origin of cumulative innovation), and may potentially provide an overarching framework that integrates evolutionary and developmental approaches to cognition. Applied to cognition, the foodset consists of information obtained through social learning or individual learning of pre-existing information, and foodset-derived items arise through mental operations resulting in new information. Thus, mental representations are not only propagators of spreading activation, but they also trigger the derivation of new mental representations. To illustrate the application of RAF networks in cognitive science, we develop a step-by-step process model of conceptual change (i.e., the process by which a child becomes an active participant in cultural evolution), focusing on childrens' mental models of the shape of the Earth. Using results from (Vosniadou & Brewer, 1992), we model different trajectories from the flat Earth model to the spherical Earth model, as well as the impact of other factors, such as pretend play, on cognitive development. As RAFs increase in size and number, they begin to merge, bridging previously compartmentalized knowledge, and get subsumed by a giant RAF (the maxRAF) that constrains and enables the scaffolding of new conceptual structure. At this point, the cognitive network becomes self-sustaining and self-organizing. The child can reliably frame new knowledge and experiences in terms of previous ones, and engage in recursive representational redescription and abstract thought. We suggest that individual differences in the reactivity of mental representations, that is, their proclivity to trigger conceptual change, culminate in different cognitive networks and concomitant learning trajectories.
在自催化食物集（RAF）生成的网络中，节点不仅是激活的被动传递者，它们还积极促进，或“催化”从现有节点（“食物集”）合成新的（“源自食物集的”）节点。因此，RAF特别适合对新结构如何从当前可用结构中生长出来进行建模，并分析潜在的非常大的网络中的相变。RAF已被用于对进化过程的起源进行建模，包括生物起源（生命的起源）和文化起源（累积创新的起源），并且可能提供一个整合进化和发展认知方法的总体框架。应用于认知时，食物集由通过社会学习或对先前存在信息的个体学习获得的信息组成，而源自食物集的项目则通过导致新信息的心理操作产生。因此，心理表征不仅是传播激活的传播者，它们还触发新心理表征的推导。为了说明RAF网络在认知科学中的应用，我们开发了一个概念变化的逐步过程模型（即儿童成为文化进化的积极参与者的过程），重点关注儿童对地球形状的心理模型。利用（Vosniadou & Brewer，1992）的研究结果，我们对从扁平地球模型到球形地球模型的不同轨迹，以及其他因素（如假装游戏）对认知发展的影响进行建模。随着RAF的规模和数量增加，它们开始合并，弥合先前分隔的知识，并被一个巨大的RAF（最大RAF）所包含，该最大RAF约束并促成新的概念结构的搭建。此时，认知网络变得自我维持和自我组织。儿童能够可靠地根据先前的知识和经验构建新知识和新体验，并进行递归的表征重新描述和抽象思维。我们认为，心理表征反应性的个体差异，即它们引发概念变化的倾向，最终导致不同的认知网络和相应的学习轨迹。
