An official website of the United States government
Understanding language requires readers and listeners to cull meaning from fast-unfolding messages that often contain conflicting cues pointing to incompatible ways of interpreting the input (e.g., “The cat was chased by the mouse”). This article reviews mounting evidence from multiple methods demonstrating that cognitive control plays an essential role in resolving conflict during language comprehension. How does cognitive control accomplish this task? Psycholinguistic proposals have conspicuously failed to address this question. We introduce an account in which cognitive control aids language processing when cues conflict by sending top-down biasing signals that strengthen the interpretation supported by the most reliable evidence available. We also provide a computationally plausible model that solves the critical problem of how cognitive control “knows” which way to direct its biasing signal by allowing linguistic knowledge itself to issue crucial guidance. Such a mental architecture can explain a range of experimental findings, including how moment-to-moment shifts in cognitive-control state—its level of activity within a person—directly impact how quickly and successfully language comprehension is achieved.
more »
« less
This content will become publicly available on July 17, 2026
Cognitive Distinctions as a Language for Cognitive Science: Comparing Methods of Description in a Model of Referential Communication
An analysis of the language we use in scientific practice is critical to developing more rigorous and sound methodologies. This article argues that how certain methods of description are commonly employed in cognitive science risks obscuring important features of an agent’s cognition. We propose to make explicit a method of description whereby the concept of cognitive distinctions is the core principle. A model of referential communication is developed and analyzed as a platform to compare methods of description. We demonstrate that cognitive distinctions, realized in a graph theoretic formalism, better describe the behavior and perspective of a simple model agent than other, less systematic or natural language–dependent methods. We then consider how different descriptions relate to one another in the broader methodological framework of minimally cognitive behavior. Finally, we explore the consequences of, and challenges for, cognitive distinctions as a useful concept and method in the tool kit of cognitive scientists.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 2345446
- PAR ID:
- 10625455
- Publisher / Repository:
- Artificial Life Journal MIT Press
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Artificial Life
- ISSN:
- 1064-5462
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1 to 23
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
Ellen Bialystok’s early work from 1976–1988 has had a lasting influence on the fields of bilingualism and linguistics. This chapter reviews her seminal work establishing bilingualism as a cross-disciplinary area of study in 1976. It then explores Bialystok’s language processing research of the 1980’s, articulating two of her crucial, yet often overlooked achievements. First, Bialystok’s early information processing models for word-level representations set the stage for an explosion of cognitive bilingualism research by identifying cognitive processes involved in second language acquisition. Second, her work set a precedent for understanding the spectrum of language experiences and their complexities, providing essential insight into why even subtle distinctions should be considered and reported when describing bilinguals. Presciently, Bialystok’s early work anticipated current understandings and future directions for bilingualism research, making her sustained contributions to the area an invaluable asset for continued exploration.more » « less
-
Pausing behavior in introductory Computer Science (CS1) courses has been related to course outcomes and could be linked to a student’s cognitive load. Using Cognitive Load Theory and Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development as a theoretical framework, this study empirically analyzes keystroke latencies, or pause times between keystrokes, with the goal of better understanding what types of assignments need more scaffolding than others. We report the characteristics of eleven assignments, introduce a method to analyze pausing behavior, and investigate how pausing behavior changes with assignment characteristics (e.g., introducing new programming constructs, engaging creativity through Turtle graphics, etc). We find evidence that pausing behavior does change based on the assignment characteristics and that assignments with particular characteristics, such as object-oriented principles, may be more likely to have excessive demands on student working memory. We also find evidence that assignment completion time may not be an accurate measure of assignment difficulty.more » « less
-
Large language models generate complex, open-ended outputs: instead of outputting a class label they write summaries, generate dialogue, or produce working code. In order to asses the reliability of these open-ended generation systems, we aim to identify qualitative categories of erroneous behavior, beyond identifying individual errors. To hypothesize and test for such qualitative errors, we draw inspiration from human cognitive biases -- systematic patterns of deviation from rational judgement. Specifically, we use cognitive biases as motivation to (i) generate hypotheses for problems that models may have, and (ii) develop experiments that elicit these problems. Using code generation as a case study, we find that OpenAI's Codex errs predictably based on how the input prompt is framed, adjusts outputs towards anchors, and is biased towards outputs that mimic frequent training examples. We then use our framework to elicit high-impact errors such as incorrectly deleting files. Our results indicate that experimental methodology from cognitive science can help characterize how machine learning systems behave.more » « less
-
null (Ed.)Abstract Product/service systems (PSSs) are increasingly found in markets, and more resources are being invested in PSS design. Despite the substantial research into PSS design, the current literature exhibits an incomplete understanding of it as a cognitive activity. This article demonstrates that the methods used to analyze product designers’ cognitive behavior can be used to produce comparable and commensurable results when analyzing PSS designers. It also generates empirical grounding for the development of hypotheses based on a cognitive study of a PSS design session in a laboratory environment using protocol analysis. This study is a part of a larger project comparing PSS design with product design. The results, which are based on the function–behavior–structure coding scheme, show that PSS design, when coded using this scheme, can be quantitatively compared with product design. Five hypotheses were developed based on the results of the study of this design session concerning where and how designers expend their cognitive design effort. These hypotheses can be used to design experiments that test them and provide the grounding for a fuller understanding of PSS design.more » « less
