''Unified Theories of Cognition'' is a 1990 book by

Allen Newell Allen Newell (March 19, 1927 – July 19, 1992) was a researcher in computer science and cognitive psychology at the RAND Corporation and at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science, Tepper School of Business, and Department ...

. Newell argues for the need of a set of general assumptions for

cognitive model A cognitive model is an approximation of one or more cognitive processes in humans or other animals for the purposes of comprehension and prediction. There are many types of cognitive models, and they can range from box-and-arrow diagrams to a set o ...

s that account for all of cognition: a unified

theory A theory is a rational type of abstract thinking about a phenomenon, or the results of such thinking. The process of contemplative and rational thinking is often associated with such processes as observational study or research. Theories may be s ...

cognition Cognition refers to "the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses". It encompasses all aspects of intellectual functions and processes such as: perception, attention, thought, ...

, or

cognitive architecture A cognitive architecture refers to both a theory about the structure of the human mind and to a computational instantiation of such a theory used in the fields of artificial intelligence (AI) and computational cognitive science. The formalized mod ...

. The research started by Newell on unified theories of cognition represents a crucial element of divergence with respect to the vision of his long-term collaborator, and AI pioneer, Herbert Simon for what concerns the future of

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...

research.

Antonio Lieto Antonio Lieto (born December 18, 1983) is an Italian cognitive scientist and computer scientist at the University of Turin and a Research Associate at the Institute of High Performance Computing of the Italian National Research Council focusing on ...

recently drew attention to such a discrepancy, by pointing out that Herbert Simon decided to focus on the construction of single simulative programs (or microtheories/"middle-range" theories) that were considered a sufficient mean to enable the generalisation of “unifying” theories of cognition (i.e. according to Simon the "unification" was assumed to be derivable from a body of qualitative generalizations coming from the study of individual simulative programs). Newell, on the other hand, didn’t consider the construction of single simulative microtheories a sufficient mean to enable the generalisation of “unifying” theories of cognition and, in fact, started the enterprise of studying and developing integrated and multi-tasking intelligence via cognitive architectures that would have led to the development of the Soar.

Newell argues that the

mind The mind is the set of faculties responsible for all mental phenomena. Often the term is also identified with the phenomena themselves. These faculties include thought, imagination, memory, will, and sensation. They are responsible for various m ...

functions as a single

system A system is a group of Interaction, interacting or interrelated elements that act according to a set of rules to form a unified whole. A system, surrounded and influenced by its environment (systems), environment, is described by its boundaries, ...

. He also claims the established

s are vastly underdetermined by experimental data. By cognition, Newell means: * Problem solving, decision making, routine action * Memory, learning, skill * Perception, motor behavior * Language * Motivation, emotion * Imagining, dreaming, daydreaming After arguing in favor of the development of unified theories of cognition, Newell puts forward a list of constraints to any unified theory, in that a theory should explain how a mind does the following: # Behave flexibly as a function of the environment # Exhibit adaptive (rational, goal-oriented) behavior # Operate in real time # Operate in a rich, complex, detailed environment (Perceive an immense amount of changing detail; use vast amounts of knowledge; and control a motor system of many degrees of freedom) # Use symbols and abstractions # Use language, both natural and artificial # Learn from the environment and from experience # Acquire capabilities through development # Operate autonomously, but within a social community # Be self-aware and have a sense of self # Be realizable as a neural system # Be construable by an embryological growth process # Arise through evolution Newell's secondary task is to put forward the

Soar as an implementation of a UTC that meets the constraints above. Other efforts at unified theories of cognition cited in the book include

ACT-R ACT-R (pronounced /ˌækt ˈɑr/; short for "Adaptive Control of Thought—Rational") is a cognitive architecture mainly developed by John Robert Anderson and Christian Lebiere at Carnegie Mellon University. Like any cognitive architecture, ACT- ...

and the

human processor model Human processor model or MHP (Model Human Processor) is a cognitive modeling method developed by Stuart K. Card, Thomas P. Moran, & Allen Newell (1983) used to calculate how long it takes to perform a certain task. Other cognitive modeling metho ...

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Artificial intelligence publications Cognitive science literature

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