Abstract
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.
Highlights
Reviewed by: Nadja Althaus, University of East Anglia, United Kingdom Caspar Addyman, Goldsmiths University of London, United Kingdom
The simulations we review were conducted using a Dynamic Neural Field (DNF) model developed in the Dynamic Field Theory (DFT), a theory of embodied cognitive dynamics that is rooted in dynamic systems theory (Schöner et al, 2015)
The simulations we review fall into three general domains: spatial cognition, infant visual exploration, and visual working memory
Summary
Three theoretical constructs were identified by bringing the simulations together here. The first construct is emergence, which refers to phenomena that arise from the interaction of multiple elements, with none of the elements individually defining the outcome These simulations show patterns of behavior emerge in a specific task and developmental context: behavior results not just from cognition but from the interaction of cognition with specific task contexts through the body (Thelen and Smith, 1994). The simulations reviewed address the sources of developmental change in stability within the cognitive system as well as the consequences of increasing stability for children’s performance across tasks and domains. The same real-time processes underlie task performance but may become more advanced as they build on the history of the system, increasing in stability and using new knowledge as it is acquired. Our simulations show continuity with the same underlying neurocognitive processes producing a wide range of behavioral phenomena when situated in different tasks spanning domains and developmental periods. We close by offering concluding remarks about contributions of the model simulations to long-standing debates in cognitive development about the nature of developmental change in cognition
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