Rational analysis is a theoretical framework, methodology, and research program in cognitive science that has been developed by

John Anderson John Anderson may refer to: Business *John Anderson (Scottish businessman) (1747–1820), Scottish merchant and founder of Fermoy, Ireland * John Byers Anderson (1817–1897), American educator, military officer and railroad executive, mentor of ...

.Anderson, J. R. (1990). "The adaptive character of thought". Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. The goal of rational analysis as a research program is to explain the function and purpose of cognitive processes and to discover the structure of the mind. Chater and Oaksford contrast it with the mechanistic explanations of cognition offered by both

computational model A computational model uses computer programs to simulate and study complex systems using an algorithmic or mechanistic approach and is widely used in a diverse range of fields spanning from physics, chemistry and biology to economics, psychology, ...

s and

neuroscience Neuroscience is the science, scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions and disorders. It is a Multidisciplinary approach, multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, an ...

. Rational analysis starts from the assumption that the mind is adapted to its environment. Rational analysis uses this assumption to investigate the structure and purpose of

representations ''Representations'' is an interdisciplinary journal in the humanities published quarterly by the University of California Press. The journal was established in 1983 and is the founding publication of the New Historicism movement of the 1980s. It ...

and cognitive processes by studying the structure of the environment. The methodology of rational analysis comprises six steps: #Goals: Specify precisely the goals of the cognitive system. #Environment: Develop a formal model of the environment to which the system is adapted. #Computational Limitations: Make the minimal assumptions about computational limitations. #Optimization: Derive the optimal behavioral function given 1-3 above. #Data: Examine the empirical literature to see whether the predictions of the behavioral function are confirmed. #Iteration: Repeat, iteratively refining the theory Rational analysis has been applied to memory, categorization, causal inference, problem solving, and reasoning. Recent work in rational analysis often involves

Bayesian cognitive science Bayesian cognitive science, also known as computational cognitive science, is an approach to cognitive science concerned with the rational analysis of cognition through the use of Bayesian inference and cognitive modeling. The term "computationa ...

. This framework has been recently extended by Falk Lieder and

Thomas L. Griffiths Thomas L. Griffiths (born circa 1978) is an Australian academic who is the Henry R. Luce Professor of Information Technology, Consciousness, and Culture at Princeton University. He studies human decision-making and its connection to problem-solv ...

that have proposed the so-called Resource-Rational Analysis (RRA), trying to incorporate additional constraints from those minimally hypothesized by the Rational analysis. Such constraints also consider, for example, which cognitive operations are actually available to a cognitive agent and their time and cost demands .

References

{{Portal, Philosophy, Psychology Analysis Cognitive science Cognitive psychology