Psychological Validity as an Issue in Cognitive Architectures
This issue is an attempt to address the question:
Does the architecture make any attempt to model aspects of human
behavior?
The answer is not always either easy or straightforward.
Certainly some research in
cognitive architectures
is concerned with modeling the methods
by which human solve problems.
An example of this is the
Teton architecture.
Another approach is to try to develop architectures which behave intelligently
without regard to the psychological plausibility of the method by which the
behavior is achieved. Still yet another approach is to claim that intelligence can not
be achieved without modeling the architecture of the brain first, and then
determining the methods which will produce the desired behavior.
The Einstellung Effect is an example of piece of human data
some cognitive architects point to to claim some validity of their own
architecture. It is the observation that once people find a solution
to a problem, they tend to stick with it, even if a better method is
available.
The
Power Law of Learning
is another example. With more practice at a
task, people seem to always be getting faster. However, the rate of
learning decreases the more practice one has.
Architectures that include a discussion of this issue:
Go to the List of Common Issues.
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