Architectures, in general, have divergent features that lead to different properties. For example, some utilize a uniform knowledge representation, some a heterogeneous representation, and others, no explicit representation at all. These decisions then lead to the support of specific capabilities. The choice of features is often made by following some explicit methodological assumptions, often driven by the domains and environments in which the architecture will be used. The variety of these choices are what is responsible for the variety of architectures. One way to further constrain the number of choices is to use examples of psychological or neuroscientific validity in architecture design. An additional advantage of this approach is that there is synergistic interchange between the studies of artificial and biological intelligence; in particular, Newell has proposed that computer modeling tools as represented by cognitive architectures now allow the formulation of unified theories of cognition.
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