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Dynamical approaches to cognitive science
Abstract
Dynamical ideas are beginning to have a major impact on cognitive science, from foundational debates to daily practice. In this article, I review three contrasting examples of work in this area that address the lexical and grammatical structure of language, Piaget's classic 'A-not-B' error, and active categorical perception in an embodied, situated agent. From these three examples, I then attempt to articulate the major differences between dynamical approaches and more traditional symbolic and connectionist approaches. Although the three models reviewed here vary considerably in their details, they share a focus on the unfolding trajectory of a system's state and the internal and external forces that shape this trajectory, rather than the representational content of its constituent states or the underlying physical mechanisms that instantiate the dynamics. In some work, this dynamical viewpoint is augmented with a situated and embodied perspective on cognition, forming a promising unified theoretical framework for cognitive science broadly construed.
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“Rather than focusing on information processing or probabilistic inference, this approach emphasizes how cognitive functions self-organize through the continuous coordination of processes unfolding across multiple timescales (Beer 2000; Sporns and Edelman 1993).”
From The myth of the Bayesian brain (2025) · cites this paper as Beer 2000
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Metadata
- Authors
- Beer, R. D.
- Affiliations
- Case Western Reserve University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Beer, Randall D.
- ORCID
- Beer, Randall D.
- Venue
- Trends in Cognitive Sciences
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2000-03
- Volume
- 4
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 91-99
- ISSN
- 1364-6613 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2154409655
- Cited by
- 639
- References
- 75
- Citations by year
- 2026: 20 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 33 · 2022: 27 · 2021: 26 · 2020: 38 · 2019: 20 · 2018: 16 · 2017: 18 · 2016: 25 · 2015: 35 · 2014: 26 · 2013: 34 · 2012: 32
- FWCI
- 1.24
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Trends in Cognitive Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Embodied and Extended Cognition
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Cognitive Science and Education Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Categorization, perception, and language
- Keywords
- dynamical systems theory, cognitive science, A-not-B error, categorical perception, embodied cognition, situated cognition, symbolic approach, connectionism, representational content, cognitive trajectories
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