Cognition: determinism, chaos and emergence

In this article, we establish a model to delineate the emergence of "self " in the brain making recourse to the theory of chaos. Self is considered as the subjective experience of a subject. As essential ingredients of subjective experiences, our model includes wakefulness, re-entry, attention, memory, and proto-experiences. The stability as stated by chaos theory can potentially describe the non-linear function of "self " as sensitive to initial conditions and can characterize it as underlying order from apparently random signals. Self-similarity is discussed as a latent menace of a pathological confusion between "self " and "others ". Our test hypothesis is that (1) consciousness might have emerged and evolved from a primordial potential or proto-experience in matter, where inert matter is the carrier of subjective experiences; and (2) "self " arises from chaotic dynamics, self-organization and selective mechanisms during ontogenesis, while emerging post-ontogenically as an adaptive pressure driven by both volume and synaptic-neural transmission and influencing the functional connectivity of neural nets (structure).

2022

This paper investigates how chaos, nonlinear and linear affect brain processing. The article also analyses how nonlinear is transformed by "latencies" in linear outcomes. I recommend the viewers consult my previous paper uploaded a couple of months ago on academia.edu with the title A Hypothesis-Information transition from variable nonlinear of the unconscious to linear of conscious. At Discussion, I inserted a post about the latest research on the role of emotion in thinking and behaviors. It shows that at least 90 percent of human decision-making is emotionally based.

Cognitive Systems Research

In this paper, it is addressed by mathematical analysis how networkoriented modeling relates to the dynamical systems perspective on mental processes. It has been mathematically proven that any dynamical system can be modeled as a temporal-causal network model and that any adaptive dynamical system (of any order) can be modeled by a self-modeling network (of the same order).

2002

1998

Complex is a special attribute we can give to many kinds of systems. In a broad sense, it can be taken as synonym of unpredictable. Human systems are affected by several sources of complexity, belonging to three classes: logical, gnosiological and computational, in order of descending restrictivity. Systems belonging to first class are not predictable at all, those belonging to the second class are predictable only through an infinite computational capacity, and those belonging to the third class are predictable only through a trans-computational capacity. Using (also) a dialectical criterion of demarcation, we can distinguish a precise and useful meaning of the word "complexity",different from that of "difficulty". In first class (logical complexity) are two sources of complexity: the pure logical complexity, directly deriving from self-reference and Gödel incompleteness theorems, and the relational complexity, resulting in a sort of indeterminacy principle occu...

In the last decades new concepts have emerged in order to understand pattern formation in cognitive and interactional processes. Some of these concepts are "emergence", "attractor" and "selforganization". Many "old" phenomena, well known in psychology (for example in Gestalt Psychology) -such as "Gestalt", "tendency towards praegnanz", "schema", "stability and changes of attitudes", interaction patterns in couples and families, etc. can be understand and reconstructed within the frame of these concepts. Especially the interdisciplinary field of "Synergetics" by H. Haken has turned out to serve as a fruitful approach and source for may research projects even in the field of psychology (to which cognitive processes belong, too). Based on the exploited pronounced analogy between pattern formation by self-organization and pattern recognition, especially the completion of an incomplete set of data (due to the dynamical structure of an attractive process) is of interest. The text will report some basic concepts and outline some questions, approaches and experimental findings. Finally, I present a plea for a reassessment of and a re-esteem for the teleological principle in order to investigate and understand the ordering forces in human's world.

2009

During the workshop, we introduce the main concepts and principles of chaos theory (positive and negative feedback, bifurcation points, attractors, complexity, self-organization, dissipative structures) through brief introductions, discussions, and a variety of stimulating and interactive activities like improvisation, active imagination, exercises of self-reflection, and techniques of disappearing. To illustrate some concepts we use the author's paintings. Then we analyze the process of creativity by applying these concepts. Creativity could be referred to as "self-organizing dissipative structures," originating spontaneously in far-from-equilibrium conditions. They emerge only through a constant exchange of energy/information with their environment, continuously create bifurcation points of instabilities and fluctuations, and transform themselves into new organization of increased order and complexity.

2023

Today, humanity has an enormous amount of knowledge at its disposal. This fact does not correspond to its social behaviour. The human capacity to understand nature and develop new technologies contrasts with the inability to cope with global challenges (poverty, global warming, etc.). It seems that society lacks the cognitive resources to use this knowledge. Thanks to our current communication systems, we are part of a network that connects our brains with other people's brains. A network at a higher level. Different individual and social behavioural patterns emerge from human interaction. To understand these patterns in depth, a basic knowledge of dynamic tools from the fields of feedback control and self-organised systems is required. This approach is not new. Towards the middle of the last century, a group of eminent scientists shaped what came to be called cybernetics. It was the first rigorous interdisciplinary approach to the study of human brain dynamic functions. In recent decades, interdisciplinary work in the study of brain functions has enabled us to make progress in understanding different aspects of cognition. From the perspective of feedback and selforganised systems, the cognitive cycle involved in various processes such as learning, memory, problem solving, etc. can be easily and naturally understood. This systemic view of the learning process gives people more tools to use their knowledge and also encourages them to engage in a continuous learning process (learning to learn) and to become aware of the effects of their actions in society (network propagation). The purpose of this paper is to develop an integrated vision of the cognitive mechanisms of individual and social learning and the possible implications of the promotion of social acquisition of a dynamic systemic vision of cognition, i.e. to enhance our social agency.

1995

Recently, a new approach to modeling cognitive phenomena has been gaining recognition: the dynamical systems approach. Proponents of this theory claim to have identified a new paradigm for the study of cognition which is superior to both symbolicism and connectionism.

The application of theories of complexity to the study of cognition has only recently started but it has already caused high expectations and controversies. Currently an extensive evaluation of the theoretical status of these theories does not exist. In an attempt to fill in that gap, this text develops a meta-theoretical analysis that presents a reconstruction of the theories of complexity applied to cognition, establishing their theoretical status, conceptual cores, basic assumptions and explanation strategies. Freeman's theory of cerebral chaos will be analyzed first. Then a meta-theory generalization to neuro-cognitive theories will be presented. It will be sustained that the central theoretical core of cognitive complexity theories are based on the metaphor of the mind, the brain or cognition as a dynamic system, founded a time-space topology. The framework of this study is based on ontology of processes and an ontological pluralism. The explicative strategies are supported by emergentistic approaches and nomological derivation based on mathematical laws. The prototypes of the theory are strongly backed up by computer simulations. This paper concludes by suggesting the existence of two antagonical perspectives (universalistic and pluralistic) in the core of these theories.