Cognitive Science[JOURNAL]
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200 papers
Learning a Novel Number System: The Role of Compositional Rules and Counting Procedures.
Holt S, Barner D
Cogn Sci · 2025 Jun · PMID 40478610 · Publisher ↗
Humans count to indefinitely large numbers by recycling words from a finite list, and combining them using rules-for example, combining sixty with unit labels to generate sixty-one, sixty-two, and so on. Past experimenta...
Humans count to indefinitely large numbers by recycling words from a finite list, and combining them using rules-for example, combining sixty with unit labels to generate sixty-one, sixty-two, and so on. Past experimental research has focused on children learning base-10 systems, and has reported that this rule learning process is highly protracted. This raises the possibility that rules are slow to emerge because they are not needed in order to represent smaller numbers (e.g., up to 20). Here, we investigated this possibility in adult learners by training them on a series of artificial number "languages" that manipulated the availability of rules, by varying the numerical base in each language. We found (1) that the size of a base-for example, base-2 versus base-5-had little effect on learning, (2) that learners struggled to acquire multiplicative rules while they learned additive rules more easily, (3) that memory for number words was greater when they were taught as part of a sequential count list, but (4) that learning numbers as part of a rote list may impair the ability to map them to magnitudes.
Why Do Children From Age 4 Fail True Belief Tasks? A Decision Experiment Testing Competence Versus Performance Limitation Accounts.
Schidelko LP, Rakoczy H
Cogn Sci · 2025 Jun · PMID 40478609 · Full text
The standard view on Theory of Mind (ToM) is that the mastery of the false belief (FB) task around age 4 marks the ontogenetic emergence of full-fledged meta-representational ToM. Recently, a puzzling finding has emerged...
The standard view on Theory of Mind (ToM) is that the mastery of the false belief (FB) task around age 4 marks the ontogenetic emergence of full-fledged meta-representational ToM. Recently, a puzzling finding has emerged: Once children master the FB task, they begin to fail true belief (TB) control tasks. This finding threatens the validity of FB tasks and the standard view. Here, we test two prominent attempts to explain the puzzling findings against each other. The perceptual access reasoning account (a competence limitation account) assumes that children at age 4 do not yet engage in meta-representation, but use simpler heuristics ("if an agent has perceptual access, she knows and then acts successfully; otherwise, she acts unsuccessfully"). In contrast, the pragmatics approach (a performance limitation account) suggests that children at age 4 do have meta-representational ToM but are confused by pragmatic task factors of the TB task. The current study tested competing predictions of both accounts in a decision experiment. Results from 165 4- to 7-year-olds reveal that failure in the TB task disappeared once the tasks were modified: children mastered both FB and TB tasks when the latter were adapted in terms of heuristic and pragmatic factors. Importantly, this pattern held in conditions in which the pragmatics account predicts success, but the perceptual access account predicts failure. Overall, the present findings thus corroborate the standard view (children use meta-representational ToM from age 4, at the latest) and suggest that difficulties with TB tasks merely reflect pragmatic performance factors.
Clockwise Bias in 2D Rotation: A Cognitive Rather Than Sensory Phenomenon.
Jiang R, Li RS, Meng M
Cogn Sci · 2025 Jun · PMID 40478607 · Publisher ↗
Previous studies have documented a preference for clockwise (CW) over counterclockwise (CCW) rotation in various visual tasks, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. To determine at what stage the CW bias emerges,...
Previous studies have documented a preference for clockwise (CW) over counterclockwise (CCW) rotation in various visual tasks, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. To determine at what stage the CW bias emerges, we tested this preference across multiple visual awareness paradigms using consistent 2D rotation stimuli. In Experiment 1, we found a strong CW bias in apparent motion, with CW dominating perception 1.6 times longer than CCW during long-term presentations and eliciting an average of 74% CW percepts in short-term presentations. By contrast, no CW bias was observed in binocular rivalry, suggesting its absence in low-level perceptual conflict. Experiment 2 employed the breaking continuous flash suppression (b-CFS) paradigm to assess unconscious preferences, revealing no difference in breakthrough times between CW and CCW rotations. Specifically, although apparent motion stimuli showed a higher frequency of CW percepts, breakthrough times for stimuli reported as CW and CCW were similar, indicating that the CW bias occurs after stimuli reach awareness. In Experiment 3, we manipulated the ambiguity of apparent motion stimuli and found significant interactions between the CW bias and input ambiguity, further ruling out a fixed sensory or response bias. These findings suggest that the CW bias in 2D rotation may be driven by higher-level cognitive processes, offering insights into how the visual system resolves perceptual ambiguity.
Examining the Relationship Between Early Experience, Selective Attention, and the Formation of Learning Traps.
Liu Y, Newell BR, Lee JE … +1 more , Hayes BK
Cogn Sci · 2025 May · PMID 40411818 · Full text
A simple-rule learning trap occurs when people show suboptimal category learning due to insufficient exploration of the learning environment. By combining experimental methods and computational modeling, the current stud...
A simple-rule learning trap occurs when people show suboptimal category learning due to insufficient exploration of the learning environment. By combining experimental methods and computational modeling, the current study investigated the impact of two key factors believed to play essential roles in the development of a simple-rule learning trap: early learning experience and selective attention. Our results showed that, in a learning environment where the true category mapping was determined by conjunctions of two predictive dimensions, the likelihood of falling into a single-dimensional learning trap increased when early learning experience involved a large loss that could be predicted from a single feature dimension. In addition, using a model-based measurement of attention bias, we observed that early experience affected trap formation by narrowing the distribution of attention to exemplar features. These findings provide the first direct empirical evidence of how early learning experience shapes the formation of a simple-rule learning trap, as well as a more granular understanding of the role of selective attention and its interaction with early learning experience in trap formation.
Toward Dynamical Modeling of Infants' Looking Times.
Engbert R, Funken J, Boll-Avetisyan N
Wiley Interdiscip Rev Cogn Sci · 2025 · PMID 40411359 · Full text
Analyzing looking times is among the most important behavioral approaches to studying problems such as infant cognition, perception, or language development. However, process-based approaches to the dynamics of infants'...
Analyzing looking times is among the most important behavioral approaches to studying problems such as infant cognition, perception, or language development. However, process-based approaches to the dynamics of infants' looking times are lacking. Here, we propose a new dynamical framework for modeling infant gaze behavior with full account of the microstructure (i.e., saccades and fixations). Our process-based model is illustrated by reproducing inter-individual differences in a developmental study of noun comprehension (Garrison et al. 2020). In our modeling framework, numerical values of model parameters map onto specific cognitive processes (e.g., attention or working memory) involved in gaze control. Because of the general architecture of the mathematical model and our robust procedures in model inference via Bayesian data assimilation, our framework may find applications in other fields of developmental and cognitive sciences.
Category Learning as a Cognitive Foundation of Language Evolution.
Zhang EQ, Shi ER, Pleyer M
Wiley Interdiscip Rev Cogn Sci · 2025 · PMID 40411358 · Publisher ↗
Category learning gives rise to category formation, which is a crucial ability in human cognition. Category learning is also one of the required learning abilities in language development. Understanding the evolution of...
Category learning gives rise to category formation, which is a crucial ability in human cognition. Category learning is also one of the required learning abilities in language development. Understanding the evolution of category learning thus can shed light on the evolution of human cognition and language. The current paper emphasizes its foundational role in language evolution by reviewing behavioral and neurological studies on category learning across species. In doing so, we first review studies on the critical role of category learning in learning sounds, words, and grammatical patterns of language. Next, from a comparative perspective, we review studies on category learning conducted on different species of nonhuman animals, including invertebrates and vertebrates, suggesting that category learning displays evolutionary continuity. Then, from a neurological perspective, we focus on the prefrontal cortex and the basal ganglia. Reviewing the involvement of these structures in vertebrates and the proposed homologous brain structure to the basal ganglia in invertebrates in category learning, as well as in language processing in humans, suggests that the neural basis of category learning likely has an ancient origin dating back to invertebrates. With evidence from both behavioral and neurological levels in both nonhuman animals and humans, we conclude that category learning lays a crucial cognitive foundation for language evolution.
Parameterizing Individual Differences in Fraction and Decimal Arithmetic.
Braithwaite DW, Rafferty AN
Cogn Sci · 2025 May · PMID 40400136 · Publisher ↗
Math problem solving frequently involves choices among alternative strategies. Strategy choices, and effects of problem features on strategy choices, both vary among individuals. We propose that individual differences in...
Math problem solving frequently involves choices among alternative strategies. Strategy choices, and effects of problem features on strategy choices, both vary among individuals. We propose that individual differences in strategy choices can be well characterized in terms of parametric variation in three types of influence: global bias, relevant feature effects, and irrelevant feature effects. We test this framework by applying it to children's strategy choices in fraction and decimal arithmetic. We describe a simple mathematical model of strategy choice in this domain that is based on a recent theory of arithmetic development and includes parameters representing the three types of influence above. We estimate these parameters in a sample of 120 fifth to ninth graders and find that all of them vary substantially among children. Further, we find that different parameters relate differently to other domain-specific and domain-general abilities, supporting the utility of distinguishing among the parameters and estimating them separately for individuals. We discuss implications of the results regarding the nature and origins of individual differences in strategy choice in fraction and decimal arithmetic and math more broadly.
Turing Jest: Distributional Semantics and One-Line Jokes.
Trott S, Walker DE, Taylor SM … +1 more , Coulson S
Cogn Sci · 2025 May · PMID 40396401 · Full text
Humor is an essential aspect of human experience, yet surprisingly, little is known about how we recognize and understand humorous utterances. Most theories of humor emphasize the role of incongruity detection and resolu...
Humor is an essential aspect of human experience, yet surprisingly, little is known about how we recognize and understand humorous utterances. Most theories of humor emphasize the role of incongruity detection and resolution (e.g., frame-shifting), as well as cognitive capacities like Theory of Mind and pragmatic reasoning. In multiple preregistered experiments, we ask whether and to what extent exposure to purely linguistic input can account for the human ability to recognize one-line jokes and identify their entailments. We find that GPT-3, a large language model (LLM) trained on only language data, exhibits above-chance performance in tasks designed to test its ability to detect, appreciate, and comprehend jokes. In exploratory work, we also find above-chance performance in humor detection and comprehension in several open-source LLMs, such as Llama-3 and Mixtral. Although all LLMs tested fall short of human performance, both humans and LLMs show a tendency to misclassify nonjokes with surprising endings as jokes. Results suggest that LLMs are remarkably adept at some tasks involving one-line jokes, but reveal key limitations of distributional approaches to meaning.
ADAPTER: A Conceptual Model of Category-Driven Analogical Retrieval.
Raynal L, Sander E
Wiley Interdiscip Rev Cogn Sci · 2025 · PMID 40375062 · Publisher ↗
Research on analogy-making agrees that mapping allows one to find structural similarities when comparing two situations. However, whether retrieval of past events from memory is guided by surface or structural similariti...
Research on analogy-making agrees that mapping allows one to find structural similarities when comparing two situations. However, whether retrieval of past events from memory is guided by surface or structural similarities remains subject to empirical debate. The current contribution is aimed at dissolving this controversy by reviewing experimental evidence showing that the determinants of analogical retrieval primarily depend on the encoding of the situations, which is itself modulated by prior categories available to the participants. Based on this review, a conceptual model is introduced (ADAPTER, As Deep As Possible Target Encoding and Retrieval), in which available categories determine the level of abstraction characterizing encoding as well as the type of retrieval that can be implemented. The model also incorporates the impact of encoding contexts and characteristics of the target descriptions on the likelihood of a relational encoding, which in turn influence the determinants of retrieval. This framework elucidates prior findings within a unified account and provides avenues for advancing the debate on the determinants of analogical retrieval by generating empirical predictions. The model also provides novel insights into the developmental trajectory of structurally based retrievals and suggests promising educational interventions aimed at promoting spontaneous transfer.
Mark the Unexpected! Animacy Preference and Directed Movement in Visual Language.
Krajinović A, Hacımusaoğlu I, Cohn N
Cogn Sci · 2025 May · PMID 40359000 · Full text
A preference for animate entities over inanimate entities is commonly found in perception and language. In our corpus study based on a cross-cultural set of 331 comics from 81 countries, we asked whether animacy preferen...
A preference for animate entities over inanimate entities is commonly found in perception and language. In our corpus study based on a cross-cultural set of 331 comics from 81 countries, we asked whether animacy preference plays a role in the morphological marking of motion in the visual language(s) used in comics. We were interested in whether animates or inanimates are more or less marked (i.e., use pictorial cues to signal motion) when compared to each other, similarly to differential marking modulated by animacy in grammars of many languages. We considered the animacy preference as the expectation that animates are moving in a directed way, while inanimates are not. We focused on motion lines (i.e., lines trailing behind a moving object) and circumfixing lines (i.e., lines surrounding a moving object) that indicate motion in comics, which are visual morphological markings that differ in their directedness: Motion lines are directional, while circumfixing lines are not. We found that inanimates are more marked by motion lines than animates in our data, while there is no difference between the two groups regarding circumfixing lines. These results persist across all global regions and styles of comics. Thus, similarly to spoken languages, visual morphology obeys what we call the mark the unexpected! principle, defined in the context of surprisal minimization: Inanimates need to be marked in order to signal that they are moving in a directed way, which is otherwise unexpected and of high surprisal. Animates are comparatively marked less because their directed movements are already expected and of low surprisal. As this principle persists across modalities and their diverse expressive systems, mark the unexpected! is a strong candidate for a cognitive universal.
Theory Change in Cognitive Neurobiology: The Case of the Orbitofrontal Cortex.
Barack DL
Wiley Interdiscip Rev Cogn Sci · 2025 · PMID 40326157 · Full text
How do theories of the functions of parts of the brain change? I argue that computational hypotheses help explain the nature of theorizing in cognitive neurobiology. I will focus on the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), a fron...
How do theories of the functions of parts of the brain change? I argue that computational hypotheses help explain the nature of theorizing in cognitive neurobiology. I will focus on the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), a frontal region of the brain implicated in an array of cognitive functions. Different theories of OFC state different principles of OFC function and use different concepts to construct those principles. There are also differences in the patterns of use of evidence across different theories. I briefly survey several extant proposals for understanding theory change in science generally and cognitive neuroscience specifically, including paradigm shifts, tool innovation, mechanism discovery, conceptual innovation, exploratory experimentation, and changes in measurement techniques. While these extant approaches fall short at describing the nature of theory change illustrated by the case of OFC, they are compatible with my proposal that these theoretical changes and differences in the use of evidence result from different computational hypotheses about the region.
A Computational Framework to Study Hierarchical Processing in Visual Narratives.
Upadhyayula A, Cohn N
Cogn Sci · 2025 May · PMID 40317561 · Full text
Theories of visual narrative comprehension have advocated for a hierarchical grammar-based comprehension mechanism, but only limited work has investigated this hierarchy. Here, we provide a computational framework inspir...
Theories of visual narrative comprehension have advocated for a hierarchical grammar-based comprehension mechanism, but only limited work has investigated this hierarchy. Here, we provide a computational framework inspired by computational psycholinguistics to address hierarchy in visual narratives. The predictions generated by this framework were compared against behavior data to draw inferences about the hierarchical properties of visual narratives. A segmentation task-where participants ranked all possible segmental boundaries-demonstrated that participants' preferences were predicted by visual narrative grammar. Three kinds of models using surprisal theory-an Earley parser, a hidden Markov model (HMM), and an n-gram model-were then used to generate segmentation preferences for the same task. Earley parser's preferences were based on a hierarchical grammar with recursion properties, while the HMM and the n-grams used a flattened grammar for visual narrative comprehension. Given the differences in the mechanics of these models, contrasting their predictions against behavior data could provide crucial insights into understanding the underlying mechanisms of visual narrative comprehension. By investigating grammatical systems outside of language, this research provides new directions to explore the generic makeup of the cognitive structure of mental representations.
Discovering Dynamical Laws for Speech Gestures.
Kirkham S
Cogn Sci · 2025 May · PMID 40313211 · Full text
A fundamental challenge in the cognitive sciences is discovering the dynamics that govern behavior. Take the example of spoken language, which is characterized by a highly variable and complex set of physical movements t...
A fundamental challenge in the cognitive sciences is discovering the dynamics that govern behavior. Take the example of spoken language, which is characterized by a highly variable and complex set of physical movements that map onto the small set of cognitive units that comprise language. What are the fundamental dynamical principles behind the movements that structure speech production? In this study, we discover models in the form of symbolic equations that govern articulatory gestures during speech. A sparse symbolic regression algorithm is used to discover models from kinematic data on the tongue and lips. We explore these candidate models using analytical techniques and numerical simulations and find that a second-order linear model achieves high levels of accuracy, but a nonlinear force is required to properly model articulatory dynamics in approximately one third of cases. This supports the proposal that an autonomous, nonlinear, second-order differential equation is a viable dynamical law for articulatory gestures in speech. We conclude by identifying future opportunities and obstacles in data-driven model discovery and outline prospects for discovering the dynamical principles that govern language, brain, and behavior.
Least Effort and Alignment in Task-Oriented Communication.
Bruna P, Kello C
Cogn Sci · 2025 Apr · PMID 40270106 · Publisher ↗
Conversational partners align the meanings of their words over the course of interaction to coordinate and communicate. One process of alignment is lexical entrainment, whereby partners mirror and abbreviate their word u...
Conversational partners align the meanings of their words over the course of interaction to coordinate and communicate. One process of alignment is lexical entrainment, whereby partners mirror and abbreviate their word usage to converge on shared terms for referents relevant to the conversation. However, lexical entrainment may result in inefficient mimicry that does not add new information, suggesting that task-oriented communication may favor alignment through other means. The present study investigates the process of alignment in Danish conversations in which dyads learned to categorize unfamiliar "aliens" using trial-and-error feedback. Performance improved as dyad communication became less verbose, measured as a decrease in the entropy of word usage. Word usage also diverged between partners as measured by Jensen-Shannon Divergence, which indicates that alignment was not achieved through lexical entrainment. A computational model of dyadic communication is shown to account for the alien game results in terms of joint least effort. The model shows that alignment of partner referents can increase as a result of minimizing both the joint entropy of dyadic word usage and the conditional entropy of individual referents given the joint signal distribution. We conclude that the principle of least effort, originally proposed to shape language evolution, may also support alignment in task-oriented communication.
What Is Cognitive Control?
Buehler D
Wiley Interdiscip Rev Cogn Sci · 2025 · PMID 40269636 · Publisher ↗
The last two decades have seen major advances in cognitive control research. In this paper, I provide an overview of this research. I next make a case that it might benefit from more reflection on its theoretical foundat...
The last two decades have seen major advances in cognitive control research. In this paper, I provide an overview of this research. I next make a case that it might benefit from more reflection on its theoretical foundation. I end by suggesting that action theory might be of use with this.
Losing Phonotactic Distinctions in Context.
Starr JR, van Schijndel M
Cogn Sci · 2025 Apr · PMID 40230064 · Publisher ↗
Previous psycholinguistic research has demonstrated that sentence processing varies according to both syntactic and discourse context. However, a systematic investigation of how such contexts influence how the processor...
Previous psycholinguistic research has demonstrated that sentence processing varies according to both syntactic and discourse context. However, a systematic investigation of how such contexts influence how the processor manages low-level representations of linguistic structure has yet to be carried out. In this paper, we conduct a series of self-paced reading experiments which show how one well-established linguistic measurement-phonotactic distinctions between non-words-varies according to the phonological, syntactic, and discourse context that the non-words appear in. Our results demonstrate that the various types of context that we control for can influence both when and if phonotactic distinctions surface. More broadly, our findings suggest that well-established phonological and psycholinguistic effects may not generalize when tested in larger contexts.
Social Network Structure Shapes the Formation of True and False Memories at the Collective Level.
Valle T, Krizovenska A, García-Arch J … +2 more , Teresa Bajo M, Fuentemilla L
Cogn Sci · 2025 Apr · PMID 40230059 · Publisher ↗
Societal structures and memory organization models share network-like features, offering insights into how information spreads and shapes collective memories. In this study, we manipulated the structure of lab-created co...
Societal structures and memory organization models share network-like features, offering insights into how information spreads and shapes collective memories. In this study, we manipulated the structure of lab-created community networks during a computer-mediated recall task using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm to test the spreading activation theory of true and false memory formation. We hypothesized that social network structure, whether clustered or not, would influence memory accuracy. Our results showed that clustered networks reinforced true memories by promoting mnemonic convergence, while non-clustered networks led to more false memories by increasing widespread cross-activation. These findings highlight how social network topology impacts memory dynamics and collective knowledge evolution.
A Simple Explanation for Harmonic Word Order.
Mansfield J, Krapp LS
Cogn Sci · 2025 Apr · PMID 40198780 · Full text
Harmonic word order is a well-established tendency in natural languages, which has previously been explained as a single ordering rule for all head-dependent relations. We propose that it can be more parsimoniously expla...
Harmonic word order is a well-established tendency in natural languages, which has previously been explained as a single ordering rule for all head-dependent relations. We propose that it can be more parsimoniously explained as an outcome of word-class frequencies, where the purported "head" is the most frequently instantiated word class in a phrasal schema. We show that the most frequent class gravitates spontaneously to an edge position in a phrasal replication process, as long as words of one class may influence the position of words of another class. This avoids the need to posit head-dependent ordering as an innate rule or bias, simplifying our theory of word order. We demonstrate the spontaneous emergence of harmony from word-class frequencies using a simple computational model of phrasal replication, and in further extensions show that the principle remains robust with fuzzy word classes and multiword chunks, can capture competition between harmony and locality, and is compatible with the results of behavioral experiments on harmonic ordering. Our findings support further exploration of syntactic models with nondiscrete word classes.
The Sustained Attention Paradox: A Critical Commentary on the Theoretical Impossibility of Perfect Vigilance.
Sharpe BT, Tyndall I
Cogn Sci · 2025 Apr · PMID 40193594 · Full text
The human capacity for sustained attention represents a critical cognitive paradox: while essential for numerous high-stakes tasks, perfect vigilance is fundamentally impossible. This commentary explores the theoretical...
The human capacity for sustained attention represents a critical cognitive paradox: while essential for numerous high-stakes tasks, perfect vigilance is fundamentally impossible. This commentary explores the theoretical impossibility of maintaining uninterrupted attention, drawing from extensive interdisciplinary research in cognitive science, neuroscience, and psychology. Multiple converging lines of evidence demonstrate that sustained attention is constrained by neural, biological, and cognitive limitations. Neural mechanisms reveal that attention operates through rhythmic oscillations, with inherent fluctuations in frontoparietal networks and default mode network interactions. Neurochemical systems and cellular adaptation effects further underscore the impossibility of continuous, perfect vigilance. Empirical research across domains-including aviation, healthcare, industrial safety, and security-consistently demonstrates rapid declines in attention performance over time, regardless of individual expertise or motivation. Even elite performers like military personnel and experienced meditators exhibit inevitable attention lapses. This paper presents an argument against traditional approaches that seek to overcome these limitations through training or willpower. Instead, it advocates for designing human-technology systems that work harmoniously with cognitive constraints. This requires developing adaptive automation, understanding individual and cultural attention variations, and creating frameworks that strategically balance human capabilities with technological support.
Mental Spaces Theory and Multilayered Meaning Construction.
Kwon I
Wiley Interdiscip Rev Cogn Sci · 2025 · PMID 40181224 · Full text
Conceptualization underlying language use is an unconscious and automatic process that interacts with the general human cognitive faculty. The main purpose of Mental Spaces Theory (MST), as one of the major frameworks in...
Conceptualization underlying language use is an unconscious and automatic process that interacts with the general human cognitive faculty. The main purpose of Mental Spaces Theory (MST), as one of the major frameworks in Cognitive Linguistics, is to shed light on this process and model it in cognitively motivated ways. This overview pursues two objectives: First, to introduce the basics of the theory, as it was originally proposed by Gilles Fauconnier, and second, to show how MST accounts for networks of mental spaces accommodating semantic contents and how it represents the many roles of cognizers in the construal process. The first part of this overview discusses the background of MST and summarizes its major contributions to the field. The second part follows up on how the theory has been evolving toward investigations of attested linguistic/multimodal data. Illustrating how multiple viewpoints are stacked up in modeling the construal of multimodal artifacts as well as linguistic ones, this overview demonstrates the full interpretive potential of the concept of a "mental space" in the processing of multilayered meaning construction.
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