Cognitive Mechanisms Research Articles

Bridging Cognitive Architectures and Generative Models with Vector Symbolic Algebras

Recent developments in generative models have demonstrated that with the right data set, techniques, computational infrastructure, and network architectures, it is possible to generate seemingly intelligent outputs, without explicitly reckoning with underlying cognitive processes. The ability to generate novel, plausible behaviour could be a boon to cognitive modellers. However, insights for cognition are limited, given that generative models' blackbox nature does not provide readily interpretable hypotheses about underlying cognitive mechanisms. On the other hand, cognitive architectures make very strong hypotheses about the nature of cognition, explicitly describing the subjects and processes of reasoning. Unfortunately, the formal framings of cognitive architectures can make it difficult to generate novel or creative outputs. We propose to show that cognitive architectures that rely on certain Vector Symbolic Algebras (VSAs) are, in fact, naturally understood as generative models. We discuss how memories of VSA representations of data form distributions, which are necessary for constructing distributions used in generative models. Finally, we discuss the strengths, challenges, and future directions for this line of work.

Remembering religious experience: Reconstruction, reflection, and reliability

This paper explores the relationship between religious belief and religious experience, bringing out a role for episodic memory that has been overlooked in the epistemology of religion. I do so by considering two questions. The first, the “Psychological Question,” asks what psychological role religious experiences play in causally bringing about religious beliefs. The second, the “Reliability Question,” asks: for a given answer to the Psychological Question about how religious beliefs are formed, are those beliefs formed using generally truth-conducive cognitive mechanisms or patterns of reasoning? I argue that the standard way of answering the Psychological Question overlooks the fact that religious beliefs are often formed via reflection on episodic memories of past religious experiences. Furthermore, recognizing this opens up room to make more meaningful progress on answering the Reliability Question.

Modeling of Translation Transformations: Cognitive Aspect (on the Material of Jane Austen’s Novel “Pride and Prejudice”)

An urgent problem of modern cognitive sciences is the rethinking of the essence of the main processes of translation activity. The classical consideration of linguistic transformations within the framework of linguistics proper is replaced by their presentation as evidence of the activation of the cognitive structures of the translator's consciousness. In this article, from the position of the cognitive approach, the issue of the functioning of various types of concepts and the implementation of cognitive work procedures with them in the process of applying translation transformations is considered.The purpose of this article is an attempt to create a cognitive model of translation transformations describing various aspects of thought-language interaction, as well as an analysis of translation transformations according to the developed model. This model provides an opportunity to reveal the dynamic aspects of the translation process, to explain the essence of translation activity as a whole.The objectives of this work include the study of theoretical works on the research topic, the disclosure of the concept of translation transformations, the analysis of types of transformations and their identification in the original text and the translation text, the definition of key points of the relationship of cognitive units and verbal meanings.A consistent study of the cognitive foundations of translation transformations was carried out using the methods of conceptual analysis, comparative analysis of the original and the translation texts, namely on the material of Jane Austen's novel "Pride and Prejudice" and its translation by I.S. Marshak. The illustrative material is represented by examples that were selected by the method of continuous sampling from texts.The results obtained allow us to conclude that the use of translation transformations can change the type of concept and the field of knowledge, as well as involve another cognitive mechanism.

Modeling default mode network patterns via a universal spatio-temporal brain attention skip network

Designing a comprehensive four-dimensional resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (4D Rs-fMRI) based default mode network (DMN) modeling methodology to reveal the spatio-temporal patterns of individual DMN, is crucial for understanding the cognitive mechanisms of the brain and the pathogenesis of psychiatric disorders. However, there are still two limitations of existing approaches for DMN modeling. The approaches either (1) simply split the spatio-temporal components and ignore the overall character of the spatio-temporal patterns or (2) are biased in the process of feature extraction for DMN modeling, and their spatio-temporal accuracy is thus not warranted. To this end, we propose a novel Spatio-Temporal Brain Attention Skip Network (STBAS-Net) to model the personalized spatio-temporal patterns of the DMN. STBAS-Net consists of spatial and temporal components, where the multi-head attention skip connection block in the spatial component achieves detailed feature extraction and enhancement in the shallow stage. Under the guidance of spatial information, we technically fuse multiple spatio-temporal information in the temporal component, which dexterously exploits the overall spatio-temporal features and achieves mutual constraints of spatio-temporal patterns to characterize the spatio-temporal patterns of the DMN. We verify the proposed STBAS-Net on a publicly released 4D Rs-fMRI dataset and an EMCI dataset. The experimental results show that compared with existing advanced methods, the proposed network can more accurately model the personalized spatio-temporal patterns of the human brain DMN and successfully identify abnormal spatio-temporal patterns in EMCI patients. This study provides a potential tool for revealing the spatio-temporal patterns of the human brain DMN and is expected to provide an effective methodological framework for future exploration of abnormal brain spatio-temporal patterns and modeling of other functional brain networks.

Translation Research on Conceptual Metaphor in the 2023 Chinese Government Work Report

In traditional rhetoric, metaphor is simply a rhetorical device used to make the mentioned things more understandable. It was not until 1980 that two cognitive linguists, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson (1980) argued in Metaphors We Live By that the essence of metaphor is the cognitive mechanism by which abstract things are explained through concrete things, shifting the study of metaphor from the linguistic level to the cognitive level. Later on, Lakoff (1996) analyzed political metaphor from a cognitive perspective for the first time in Moral Politics, which drives the upsurge of research on conceptual metaphor in political discourse. Political discourse usually uses metaphor to conceptualize the political ideas and issues it aims to disseminate, and the use of conceptual metaphor is closely related to national culture, so the translation of conceptual metaphor has become the key to the overseas publicity of political discourse. On March 5, 2023, Premier Li Keqiang delivered Chinese Government Work Report at the opening meeting of the first session of the 14th National People’s Congress. After reading the official translation on www.china.org.cn, the authors find that the Report contains a wealth of conceptual metaphors, and whether the translation of these metaphors is appropriate or not will affect the accuracy of people’s understanding of the Report. Based on Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980) conceptual metaphor theory and Group’s (2007) metaphor identification procedure, this paper takes the 2023 Chinese Government Work Report and its English translation version on www.china.org.cn as the research corpus. Through manual screening, classification and statistics of conceptual metaphors, this paper explores ten types of conceptual metaphor models, namely human metaphor, journey metaphor, war metaphor, cultural metaphor, architecture metaphor, water metaphor, animal and plant metaphor, machine metaphor, line metaphor as well as object metaphor. Based on Xiao’s (2005) cognitive strategy of metaphor translation, this paper also analyzes the translation of ten types of conceptual metaphors. This paper attempts to explore the following three research questions: (1) What are the types of metaphorical patterns in the Report? (2) How are the conceptual metaphors used in the Report and what cultural connotations and images are conveyed by them? (3) How to effectively translate conceptual metaphors in the Report to achieve a better understanding of the target audience? Microsoft Office (Word and Excel) is used as a statistical tool and a mapping tool to count specific conceptual metaphor categories and record typical metaphor keywords, and visualize the data of the proportion of various types. This paper tries to summarize and analyze the cultural connotations and images conveyed by the conceptual metaphors, so as to provide help for the English translation of Chinese political discourse and promote the international dissemination of Chinese political ideas. Through the analysis of conceptual metaphors, we can judge that although the political concepts in the Report is abstract, conceptual metaphors can express them more concretely and more easily understood by the audience through the mapping from the source domain to the target domain.

Induced emotion counter-regulation affects attentional inhibition of emotional information: ERP evidence from a randomized manipulation approach.

Automatic emotion counter-regulation refers to an unintentional attentional shift away from the current emotional state and toward information of the opposite valence. It is a useful emotion regulation skill that prevents the escalation of current emotional state. However, the cognitive mechanisms of emotion counter-regulation are not fully understood. Using a randomization approach, this study investigated how automatic emotion counter-regulation impacted attentional inhibition of emotional stimuli, an important aspect of emotion processing closely associated with emotion regulation and mental health. Forty-six university students were randomly assigned to an emotion counter-regulation group and a control group. The former group watched an anger-inducing video to evoke automatic emotion counter-regulation of anger, while the latter group watched an emotionally neutral video. Next, both groups completed a negative priming task of facial expressions with EEG recorded. In the emotion counter-regulation group, we observed an enhanced attentional inhibition of the angry, but not happy, faces, as indicated by a prolonger response time, a larger N2, and a smaller P3 in response to angry versus happy stimuli. These patterns were not observed in the control group, supporting the role of elicited emotion counter-regulation of anger in causing these modulation patterns in responses.

CKTN: Commonsense knowledge transfer network for human activity understanding

In most human activity understanding research, various deep learning networks are well designed to fit the character distribution of different human activities in images. After being fed with enough training data, the networks can perceive related patterns passively. Such abilities originate from the stimulation of training data, but these networks lack the ability to perform subjective judgment. When lacking sufficient training data, networks have difficulty perceiving valuable information, which leads to poor performance. However, human beings can infer human activities in complex situations through subjective judgment with their knowledge. On this point, we propose the commonsense knowledge transfer network (CKTN), which is empowered with human cognitive mechanisms and is able to understand human activities by using prior commonsense knowledge. More specifically, we study the structural combination rules of human bodies and explore the co-occurrence relationship between different body parts and objects. Then, we construct the part action cooccurrence probability matrix and human skeleton knowledge matrix, which work as prior knowledge, guiding our network to absorb and reason what the human activities in images are. Compared with traditional deep learning methods, our network realizes the unification of both subjective cognition and passive perception abilities. Experiments show the effectiveness of this method.

How context influences primates' decisions about reciprocity

AbstractReciprocally patterned behavior is widespread in animals in the wild, but experimental evidence has been frustratingly inconsistent. Contrary to earlier contentions that this inconsistency is because reciprocity in non‐human species is a rare or fragile effect, recent authors have argued that the evidence suggests that reciprocity is widespread, that it often relies on cognitive mechanisms that are common across species, and is potentially an important factor in animals' daily lives. Another possible explanation for its apparent rarity, then, is that due to experimental studies' (intentionally) structured environment, they can lack the appropriate context to promote and support reciprocity. Focusing on outcomes from experimental reciprocal tasks in non‐human primates, I consider several factors that may be important, including the identity of the interactors and their relationship to one another, whether there is free choice of partners, whether the individuals are interacting directly, the timing of the interaction, the commodity involved, whether individuals have a reason to reciprocate, and the equity of the interaction. Clarifying the role of each of these factors will help improve experimental tasks and the social and ecological contexts that promote reciprocity.

The cognitive neural mechanism of trait anxiety influences mind wandering: An ERP study

Converging evidence from behavioral and neuroscience studies demonstrated that our attention to the external world is influenced by emotion, especially anxiety. However, little is known about how trait anxiety influences neural and behavioral responses during mind wandering. The present study aimed to examine the neural and cognitive time courses of how trait anxiety affects mind wandering. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 20 individuals with high trait anxiety and 20 with low trait anxiety when they performed the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART) in which they were asked to respond to frequent ‘‘nontargets’’ (digits 0–6, 8–9) but withhold responses to infrequent ‘‘targets’’ (the digit 7). We compared the behavioral performance and electroencephalographic waves between the high and low trait anxiety groups during states of “mind wandering” (fail to withhold a response to the target number) and being “on-task” (correctly withhold a response to the target number). Results showed that a larger late positive component (LPC, 400–950 ms) was elicited when participants were “on task” than when they were mind wandering. Additionally, a larger late slow waveform (LSW, 950–1050 ms) was elicited in the high trait anxiety group than in the low trait anxiety group. Moreover, there was a positive correlation between self-reported trait anxiety scores and the LSW amplitudes during mind wandering. It was proposed that the effect of trait anxiety on the cognitive neural mechanism underlying attentional processing was primarily reflected in a later process involving the redistribution of cognitive resources.

Google effects on memory: a meta-analytical review of the media effects of intensive Internet search behavior.

People are increasingly using the web for fact-checking and other forms of information seeking. The "Google effects" refers to the idea that individuals rely on the Internet as a source of knowledge rather than remembering it for themselves. However, few literature review have yet comprehensively examined the media effects of this intensive Internet search behavior. In this study, by carrying out meta-analysis, we found that google effects is closely associated with cognitive load, behavioral phenotype and cognitive self-esteem. And this phenomenon is also more likely to happen while using a mobile phone to browse the Internet rather than a computer. People with a larger knowledge base are less susceptible to the consequences of Internet use than those with a smaller knowledge base. The media effect was stronger for persons who had used the Internet before than for those who had not. And meta-analyses show that participants in North America (parameter = -1.0365, 95%CI = [-1.8758, -0.1972], p < 0.05) are more susceptible to frequent Internet search behavior relative to other regions. Overall, google effects on memory challenges the way individuals seek and read information, and it may lead to changes in cognitive and memory mechanisms.

Generative and active engagement in learning neuroscience: A comparison of self-derivation and rephrase

It is crucial to identify cognitive mechanisms that support knowledge growth. One such mechanism that is known to improve learning outcomes is generative processing: the construction of novel information beyond what is directly taught. In this study of college students, we investigate the learning outcomes associated with the generative process of self-derivation through integration, the integration of multiple related facts to generate novel information. We compare the effects of self-derivation versus an active rephrase control condition on retrieval, application, and organization of neuroscience classroom content. In the self-derivation condition, learners were prompted to generate inferences based on integration of two explicitly-taught facts. In the rephrase condition, learners were explicitly provided these inferences and asked to rephrase them. We found few overall differences between learning manipulation conditions. However, we found that, regardless of the learning manipulation condition to which learners were exposed, learners generated their own information on some trials. This generation predicted success on retrieval and application of learned information. Further, self-derivation, when successful, led to particularly high rates of retrieval when compared with active rephrase. These findings inform theory on generative processing, and demonstrate that self-derivation is a mechanism of knowledge growth that may be useful for retrieval.

Explaining Brain-Behavior Relations: Inhibitory Control as an Intermediate Phenotype Between the N2 ERP and the Externalizing Spectrum in Childhood.

Identifying neural and cognitive mechanisms in externalizing problems in childhood is important for earlier and more targeted intervention. Meta-analytic findings have shown that smaller N2 event-related potential (ERP) amplitudes, thought to reflect inhibitory control, are associated with externalizing problems in children. However, it is unclear how (i.e., through which cognitive processes) N2 amplitudes relate to externalizing problems. We examined whether inhibitory control may be a cognitive process that links N2 amplitudes and externalizing problems in early childhood. Children (N = 147, 74 girls) were assessed at four time points, spanning 3-7years of age. Children's externalizing behavior was assessed via questionnaires completed by mothers, fathers, and teachers/secondary caregivers. Children's inhibitory control was assessed using eleven performance-based tasks and two questionnaires. Developmental scaling linked differing measures of inhibitory control and externalizing behavior across ages onto the same scale. Children's N2 amplitudes were extracted from electroencephalography data collected during a go/no-go task. Smaller N2 amplitudes were associated with externalizing problems and poorer inhibitory control. A concurrent analysis of indirect effects revealed that poorer inhibitory control partially explained the association between smaller N2 amplitudes and externalizing problems, even when controlling for the child's age, sex, and socioeconomic status. This is among the first studies to link N2 amplitudes, inhibitory control, and externalizing problems during early childhood. Findings suggest that smaller N2 amplitudes may be an early neural indicator of inhibitory control deficits and externalizing psychopathology. Moreover, inhibitory control may be an important target for early intervention in the development of externalizing psychopathology.

Sign Language Analysis Using CNN Algorithm

Sign language is a rich and diverse mode of communication used by Deaf and hard of-hearing communities around the world. This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of sign language, focusing on its linguistic and gestural elements. Our study encompasses an exploration of the structural properties of sign languages, their historical evolution, and the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying sign language processing. We begin by providing an overview of sign language as a natural and fully developed language with its own syntax, semantics, and phonological features. Drawing from various sign languages, including American Sign Language (ASL), British Sign Language (BSL), and others, we investigate the grammatical aspects and iconicity within signs. Furthermore, we examine the role of facial expressions and non-manual markers in conveying essential linguistic information. This analysis also delves into the historical and cultural dimensions of sign languages, shedding light on the evolution of sign languages and the influence of Deaf culture on their development. It highlights the importance of recognizing sign languages as unique cultural and linguistic entities, distinct from spoken languages. Keywords:Computer Vision; Convolutional Neural Networks; Sign Language Recognition

Social norms, mentalising, and common knowledge, in making peace and war.

The emergence of social norms would have been dependent on the evolution of the cognitive capacity for mentalising to multiple orders of intentionality. Common knowledge is a related phenomenon that can solve coordination problems. That the same cognitive and social mechanisms should facilitate both peace and war is resonant with Girard's scapegoat hypothesis on the relationship between violence and religion.

Study on the Cross-language Influence of Japanese Learning and English Learning

The purpose of this study is to explore the interaction between Japanese learning and English learning and its impact on language learners, as well as cross-language teaching strategies and practices. Based on the literature research method and comprehensive analysis method, based on the overview of the cross-language influence theory, this paper analyzes the mutual influence mechanism of Japanese learning and English learning, including the comparison and cross-influence of phonological learning, vocabulary learning and grammar learning. Then, it discusses the influence of cross-language influence on the cognitive mechanism of language learners and analyzes the causes of language transfer. Finally, the paper puts forward cross-language teaching strategies and practices, including the exploration of cross-language teaching models, effective cross-language teaching strategies of Japanese and English, and the application prospects of cross-language teaching in language education. Based on this research, we can better understand the interaction between Japanese and English learning, and provide theoretical support and practical guidance for cross-language teaching.

Music Psychology and its Integration in Middle School Music Education in China

This study provides insight into the importance of music psychology in music education. First, it emphasizes the key role that music psychology plays in improving students' musical literacy and skills, treating it as an indispensable component of music education. Secondly, the article points out that short-duration music videos have a significant impact on adolescents’ learning attention, highlighting the urgency of integrating music psychology into teaching. In addition, the article deeply discusses the close relationship between music and psychology, which is crucial for improving the quality of music teaching and deeply understanding the psychological process of music learning. Through an in-depth analysis of the role of musical emotion-inducing mechanisms in cognition and emotion, the article particularly emphasizes the impact of musical expectations on emotional responses. Finally, this article once again emphasizes the key role of music psychology in music education, which helps to improve students' musical literacy, deeply understand the psychological process of music learning, and improve the overall quality of music teaching.

Understanding anxiety through uncertainty quantification.

Uncertainty has been a central concept in psychological theories of anxiety. However, this concept has been plagued by divergent connotations and operationalizations. The lack of consensus hinders the current search for cognitive and biological mechanisms of anxiety, jeopardizes theory creation and comparison, and restrains translation of basic research into improved diagnoses and interventions. Drawing upon uncertainty decomposition in Bayesian Decision Theory, we propose a well-defined conceptual structure of uncertainty in cognitive and clinical sciences, with a focus on anxiety. We discuss how this conceptual structure provides clarity and can be naturally applied to existing frameworks of psychopathology research. Furthermore, it allows formal quantification of various types of uncertainty that can benefit both research and clinical practice in the era of computational psychiatry.

Space-time mapping relationships in sensorimotor communication during asymmetric joint action.

Sensorimotor communication is frequently observed in complex joint actions and social interactions. However, it remains challenging to explore the cognitive foundations behind sensorimotor communication. The present study extends previous research by introducing a single-person baseline condition and formulates two distinct categories of asymmetric joint action tasks: distance tasks and orientation tasks. This research investigates the action performance of 65 participants under various experimental conditions utilizing a 2 (cooperative intention: Coop, No-coop) × 2 (task characteristic: distance, orientation) × 4 (target: T1, T2, T3, T4) repeated-measures experimental design to investigate the cognitive mechanisms underlying sensorimotor communication between individuals. The results showed that (1) target key dwell time, motion time, total motion time, and maximum motion height in the Coop condition are more than in the No-coop condition. (2) In the distance task without cooperative intention, the dwell time of T4 is smaller than T1, T2, T3, and its variability of T1, T2, T3, and T4 were no different. In the distance task with cooperative intention, the dwell time and its variability of T1, T2, T3, and T4 displayed an increasing trend. (3) In the orientation task without cooperative intention, the dwell time of T1 is smaller than T2, T3, T4, and variability of the target keys T1, T2, T3, and T4 had no difference. In the orientation task with cooperative intention, the dwell time and variability of the target keys T1, T2, T3, and T4 had increasing trends. Those findings underscore the importance of cooperative intention for sensorimotor communication. In the distance task with cooperative intention, message senders establish a mapping relationship characterized by "near-small, far-large" between the task distance and the individual's action characteristics through sensorimotor experience. In the orientation task with cooperative intention, message senders combined sensorimotor experience and verbal metaphors to establish a mapping relationship between task orientation and action characteristics, following the sequence of "left-up, right-up, left-down, right-down" to transmit the message to others.

Distinct mechanisms underlying cross-modal semantic conflict and response conflict processing.

Interference from task-irrelevant stimuli can occur during the semantic and response processing stages. Previous studies have shown both common and distinct mechanisms underlying semantic conflict processing and response conflict processing in the visual domain. However, it remains unclear whether common and/or distinct mechanisms are involved in semantic conflict processing and response conflict processing in the cross-modal domain. Therefore, the present electroencephalography study adopted an audiovisual 2-1 mapping Stroop task to investigate whether common and/or distinct mechanisms underlie semantic conflict and response conflict. Behaviorally, significant cross-modal semantic conflict and significant cross-modal response conflict were observed. Electroencephalography results revealed that the frontal N2 amplitude and theta power increased only in the semantic conflict condition, while the parietal N450 amplitude increased only in the response conflict condition. These findings indicated that distinct neural mechanisms were involved in cross-modal semantic conflict and response conflict processing, supporting the domain-specific cognitive control mechanisms from a cross-modal multistage conflict processing perspective.

The nearly missed account of narrative suspense

Abstract In this paper, we specify features of a narrative that are responsible for its suspensefulness. Taking Noël Carroll’s account of erotetic narrative as our point of departure, we argue that a narrative is experienced as suspenseful because it gives rise to so-called potentially inquiry terminating questions. Such questions suggest to readers that they are just about to get the information they are reading for. Due to this highly specific erotetic structure, suspenseful narratives trigger cognitive and emotional mechanisms that are associated with what has been called a “near miss” in studies on gambling behavior: a situation which suggests a player that she has almost achieved a favorable result. In spelling out the details of the theory, we propose both a causal explanation of narrative suspense and defining properties, such that instances of suspense can be distinguished from instances of other states of readerly excitement.