On What Makes Certain Dynamical Systems Cognitive: A Minimally Cognitive Organization Program
Adaptive Behavior June 1, 2006 Xabier E. Barandiaran, Álvaro Moreno 131 citations
Cognition is defined as adaptive-autonomy in embodied and situated neurodynamics, where a web of stability dependencies between sensorimotor structures is created and preserved through historical or developmental processes. The authors argue that dynamicism has helped explain how cognitive agents work but has not addressed what makes something cognitive, and the former cannot be complete without the latter. They criticize behavioristic characterizations in favor of an organizational approach focused on internal dynamic relationships. Emotional embodiment plays a functional role: internal bioregulatory processes couple to the formation and adaptive regulation of neurodynamic autonomy. A minimally cognitive behavior program in evolutionary simulation modeling is discussed, suggesting a complementary minimally cognitive organization program is needed.