Contributions of dynamic systems theory to cognitive development

We examine the contributions of dynamic systems theory to the field of cognitive development, focusing on modeling using dynamic neural fields. After introducing central concepts of dynamic field theory (DFT), we probe empirical predictions and findings around two examples—the DFT of infant perseverative reaching that explains Piaget's A-not-B error and the DFT of spatial memory that explain changes in spatial cognition in early development. Review of the literature around these examples reveals that computational modeling is having an impact on empirical research in cognitive development; however, this impact does not extend to neural and clinical research. Moreover, there is a tendency for researchers to interpret models narrowly, anchoring them to specific tasks. We conclude on an optimistic note, encouraging both theoreticians and experimentalists to work toward a more theory-driven future.     

Bridging the representational gap in the dynamic systems approach to development

We describe the relationship between the dynamic systems approach to development and a recent approach to the dynamics of representational states – the dynamic field approach. Both approaches share an emphasis on the concepts of stability (attractor states), instability (especially bifurcations), soft-assembly and flexibility. But the dynamic field approach adds the concept of ‘activation’ to capture the strength with which behaviorally relevant information is specified. By explicitly linking these dynamic systems approaches, we allow for more direct comparisons between dynamic systems theory and connectionism. We note three current differences between these two approaches to development: (1) the notion of stability is central to how representational states are conceptualized in the dynamic field approach; (2) the dynamic field approach is more directly concerned with the sensorimotor origins of cognition; and (3) the dynamic approach is less advanced with regard to learning. We conclude that proponents of the two approaches can learn from the respective strengths of each approach. We suspect these differences will largely disappear in the next 20 years.     

The neuronal basis of bimanual coordination: recent neurophysiological evidence and functional models

Recent physiological studies of the neuronal processes underlying bimanual movements provide new tests for earlier functional models of bimanual coordination. The recently acquired data address three conceptual areas: the generalized motor program (GMP), intermanual crosstalk and dynamic systems models. To varying degrees, each of these concepts has aspects that can be reconciled with experimental evidence. The idea of a GMP is supported by the demonstration of abstract neuronal motor codes, e.g. bimanual-specific activity in motor cortex. The crosstalk model is consistent with the facts that hand-specific coding also exists and that interactions occur between the motor commands for each arm. Uncrossed efferent projections may underlie crosstalk on an executional level. Dynamic interhemispheric interactions through the corpus callosum may provide a high-level link at the parametric programming level, allowing flexible coupling and de-coupling. Flexible neuronal interactions could also underlie adaptive large-scale systems dynamics that can be formalized within the dynamic systems theory approach.

The correspondence of identified neuronal processes with functions of abstract models encourages the development of realistic computational models that can predict bimanual behavior on the basis of neuronal activity.     

New nonlinear and dynamic avenues for the study of work and organizational psychology: an introduction to the special issue

ABSTRACT

Nonlinear and dynamic approaches are two main principles of complex systems. The work and organizational psychology field has recently applied these concepts to understand human behaviour at work. In this introductory paper, we describe how human behaviour at work can be understood from a nonlinear and dynamic perspective, developing and applying the advantages of this approach to continue moving beyond the frontiers of our knowledge. We focus on the theoretical, methodological, and epistemological implications of the nonlinear dynamic approach in the field. Then, we present the five papers included in this special issue. These papers have applied nonlinear and dynamic concepts to understand a wide range of phenomena: subordinates-supervisors relationships, team behaviour, deviant workplace behaviour, transformational leadership, and training transfer. Overall, these papers demonstrate the utility of nonlinear dynamics in our field and how we can create more time-sensitive and complex knowledge by paying special attention to when and how phenomena happen and how such phenomena interrelate over time.     

Using Dynamic Field Theory to extend the embodiment stance toward higher cognition

The embodiment stance emphasizes that cognitive processes unfold continuously in time, are constantly linked to the sensory and motor surfaces, and adapt through learning and development. Dynamic Field Theory (DFT) is a neurally based set of concepts that has turned out to be useful for understanding how cognition emerges in an embodied and situated system. We explore how the embodiment stance may be extended beyond those forms of cognition that are closest to sensorimotor processes. The core elements of DFT are dynamic neural fields (DNFs), patterns of activation defined over different kinds of spaces. These may include retinal space and visual feature spaces, spaces spanned by movement parameters such as movement direction and amplitude, or abstract spaces like the ordinal axis along which sequences unfold. Instances of representation that stand for perceptual objects, motor plans, or action intentions are peaks of activation in the DNFs. We show how such peaks may arise from input and are stabilized by intra-field interaction. Given a neural mechanism for instantiation, the neuronal couplings between DNFs implement cognitive operations. We illustrate how these mechanisms can be used to enable architectures of dynamic neural fields to perform cognitive functions such as acquiring and updating scene representations, using grounded spatial language, and generating sequences of actions. Implementing these DFT models in autonomous robots demonstrates how these cognitive functions can be enacted in embodied, situated systems.     

Cognition as a dynamic system: Principles from embodiment

Traditional approaches to cognitive development concentrate on the stability of cognition and explain that stability via concepts segregated from perceiving acting. A dynamic systems approach in contrast focuses on the self-organization of behavior in tasks. This article uses recent results concerning the embodiment of cognition to argue for a dynamic systems approach. The embodiment hypothesis is the idea that intelligence emerges in the interaction of an organism with an environment and as a result of sensory-motor activity. The continual coupling of cognition to the world through the body both adapts cognition to the idiosyncrasies of the here and now, makes it relevant, and provides the mechanism for developmental change.     

Creating a strategy for progress: a contextual behavioral science approach

Behavior analysis is a field dedicated to the development and application of behavioral principles to the understanding and modification of the psychological actions of organisms. As such, behavior analysis was committed from the beginning to a comprehensive account of behavior, stretching from animal learning to complex human behavior. Despite that lofty goal, basic behavior analysis is having a generally harder time finding academic support, and applied behavior analysis has narrowed its focus. In the present paper we argue that both of these trends relate to the challenge of human language and cognition, and that developments within clinical behavior analysis and the analysis of derived relational responding are providing a way forward. To take full advantage of these developments, however, we argue that behavior analysts need to articulate their unique approach to theory, to develop more flexible language systems for applied workers, and to expand their methodological flexibility. This approach, which we term contextual behavioral science, is meant as an evolutionary step that will allow behavior analysis to better capture the center of modern psychological concerns in both the basic and applied areas. Clinical behavior analysis is showing a way forward for behavior analysis to regain its vision as a comprehensive approach to behavior.     

Development of memory for pattern and path: Further evidence for the fractionation of visuo-spatial memory

Evidence from a number of sources now suggests that the visuo-spatial sketchpad (VSSP) of working memory may be composed of two subsystems: one for maintaining visual information and the other for spatial information. In this paper we present three experiments that examine this fractionation using a developmental approach. In Experiment 1, 5-, 8-, and 10-year old children were presented with a visuo-spatial working memory task (the matrices task) with two presentation formats (static and dynamic). A developmental dissociation in performance was found for the static and dynamic conditions of both tasks, suggesting that the activation of separable subsystems of the VSSP is dependent upon a static/dynamic distinction in information content rather than a visual/spatial one. A highly similar pattern of performance was found for a mazes task with static and dynamic formats. However, one strategic activity, the use of simple verbal recoding, may also have been responsible for the observed pattern of performance in the matrices task. In Experiments 2 and 3 this was investigated using concurrent articulatory suppression. No evidence to support this notion was found, and it is therefore proposed that static and dynamic visuo-spatial information is maintained in working memory by separable subcomponents of the VSSP.     

The association of physical activity to neural adaptability during visuo-spatial processing in healthy elderly adults: A multiscale entropy analysis

Physical activity has been shown to benefit brain and cognition in late adulthood. However, this effect is still unexplored in terms of brain signal complexity, which reflects the level of neural adaptability and efficiency during cognitive processing that cannot be acquired via averaged neuroelectric signals. Here we employed multiscale entropy analysis (MSE) of electroencephalography (EEG), a new approach that conveys important information related to the temporal dynamics of brain signal complexity across multiple time scales, to reveal the association of physical activity with neural adaptability and efficiency in elderly adults. A between-subjects design that included 24 participants (aged 66.63 ± 1.31 years; female = 12) with high physical activity and 24 age- and gender-matched low physical activity participants (aged 67.29 ± 1.20 years) was conducted to examine differences related to physical activity in performance and MSE of EEG signals during a visuo-spatial cognition task. We observed that physically active elderly adults had better accuracy on both visuo-spatial attention and working memory conditions relative to their sedentary counterparts. Additionally, these physically active elderly adults displayed greater MSE values at larger time scales at the Fz electrode in both attention and memory conditions. The results suggest that physical activity may be beneficial for adaptability of brain systems in tasks involving visuo-spatial information. MSE thus might be a promising approach to test the effects of the benefits of exercise on cognition.     

Social dynamics in the preschool

In this paper, we consider how concepts from dynamic systems (such as attractors, repellors, and self-organization) can be applied to the study of young children’s peer relationships. We also consider how these concepts can be used to explore basic issues involving early peer processes. We use the dynamical systems approach called state space grid (SSG) analysis and consider how it can be expanded beyond the study of dyads to the study of larger social groups and networks. In particular, we explore the role of homophily—that is, behavioral and sex similarity—as factors in the self-organization of young children’s social groups. A dynamic systems approach allows for consideration of peer processes difficult to assess using more traditional approaches.     

追踪手势对视空间学习的增强作用

本研究采用地图学习任务范式考察了追踪手势对视空间学习的影响和增强, 并试图从追踪手势的角度寻找能够有效促进操作者视空间学习的方法。实验1探究了产生追踪手势对视空间学习的增强作用; 实验2采用遮挡范式考察了产生追踪手势增强视空间学习的作用机制, 发现产生追踪手势所提供的视觉信息和感觉运动信息共同作用于视空间学习过程; 实验3从具身认知的视角探索了基于追踪手势的视空间学习增强方式, 发现以自我为参照产生追踪手势可以更好地增强个体的视空间学习。本研究结果很好地支持并补充了手势的具身认知理论。     

The edge of chaos: A nonlinear view of psychoanalytic technique

The field of nonlinear dynamics (or chaos theory) provides ways to expand concepts of psychoanalytic process that have implications for the technique of psychoanalysis. This paper describes how concepts of “the edge of chaos,” emergence, attractors, and coupled oscillators can help shape analytic technique resulting in an approach to doing analysis which is at the same time freer and more firmly based in an enlarged understanding of the ways in which psychoanalysis works than some current recommendation about technique. Illustrations from a lengthy analysis of an analysand with obsessive‐compulsive disorder show this approach in action.     

Simple games as dynamic, coupled systems: randomness and other emergent properties

From a game theory perspective the ability to generate random behaviors is critical. However, psychological studies have consistently found that individuals are poor at behaving randomly. In this paper we investigated the possibility that the randomness mechanism lies not within the individual players but in the interaction between the players. Provided that players are influenced by their opponent’s past behavior, their relationship may constitute a state of reciprocal causation [Cognitive Science 21 (1998) 461], in which each player simultaneously affects and is affected by the other player. The result of this would be a dynamic, coupled system. Using neural networks to represent the individual players in a game of paper, rock, and scissors, a model of this process was developed and shown to be capable of generating chaos-like behaviors as an emergent property. In addition, it was found that by manipulating the control parameters of the model, corresponding to the amount of working memory and the perceived values of different outcomes, that the game could be biased in favor of one player over the other, an outcome not predicted by game theory. Human data was collected and the results show that the model accurately describes human behavior. The results and the model are discussed in light of recent theoretical advances in dynamic systems theory and cognition.     

幼儿朴素理论发展的研究现状

朴素物理学、朴素生物学和朴素心理学是幼儿朴素理论发展的三个核心领域,本体集合、因果原则集合和内部一致的知识体系则是朴素理论的三个重要成分。该文以幼儿对三个核心领域的因果认知发展为中心,以朴素理论三个重要组成成分为线索,对近期幼儿朴素理论发展的研究成果进行了简要的介绍和讨论,并提出进一步研究所需要解决的问题。     

A dynamic view of cultural influence: A review

Static models of culture's influence have given way to a dynamic view, which identifies not only differences across cultures in people's judgments and decisions, but also the situations and conditions in which these differences do or do not appear. Theory and evidence developed from a cognitive psychological perspective underlie this dynamic approach, including research emerging from the “dynamic constructivist” and “situated cognition” models. In the present review, we focus on findings that confirm the utility of this cognitively oriented approach, and briefly discuss the advantages and complementary nature of the “social collective” and neuroscience approaches to understanding culture.     

Finger posing primes number comprehension

Canonical finger postures, as used in counting, activate number knowledge, but the exact mechanism for this priming effect is unclear. Here we dissociated effects of visual versus motor priming of number concepts. In Experiment 1, participants were exposed either to pictures of canonical finger postures (visual priming) or actively produced the same finger postures (motor priming) and then used foot responses to rapidly classify auditory numbers (targets) as smaller or larger than 5. Classification times revealed that manually adopted but not visually perceived postures primed magnitude classifications. Experiment 2 obtained motor priming of number processing through finger postures also with vocal responses. Priming only occurred through canonical and not through non-canonical finger postures. Together, these results provide clear evidence for motor priming of number knowledge. Relative contributions of vision and action for embodied numerical cognition and the importance of canonicity of postures are discussed.     

Memory abilities in Williams syndrome: Dissociation or developmental delay hypothesis?

Williams syndrome (WS) is a neurodevelopmental genetic disorder often described as being characterized by a dissociative cognitive architecture, in which profound impairments of visuo-spatial cognition contrast with relative preservation of linguistic, face recognition and auditory short-memory abilities. This asymmetric and dissociative cognition has been also proposed to characterize WS memory ability, with sparing of auditory short-term memory and impairment of spatial and long-term memory abilities. In this study, we explored the possibility of a double memory dissociation in WS (short- versus long-term memory; verbal versus visual memory). Thus, verbal memory abilities were assessed using California Verbal Learning Test and Digit Span and Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure and Corsi Blocks was used to assess visual-spatial memory abilities. Overall, WS subjects were found to present a generalized significant impairment in verbal and visuo-spatial components either in short- or long-term memory. In sum, data from this study brings support for a developmental delay hypothesis, rather than a double dissociation within memory systems in WS.     

Motor imagery and higher-level cognition: four hurdles before research can sprint forward

Traditionally, higher-level cognition has been described as including processes such as attention, memory, language, and decision-making. However, motor processing and motor imagery are important aspects of cognition that have typically been considered outside of the traditional view. Recent research has demonstrated that there may be a critical functional relationship between motor imagery and other higher-level cognitive processes. Here we present a review of the extant literature on motor imagery and cognition, as well as outline four hurdles that must be addressed before the field investigating the influence of motor-based processes on higher-level cognition can be moved forward. These hurdles include problems distinguishing between visual and motor processes, addressing the differences in tasks and stimuli used to evoke motor imagery, accounting for individual differences in motor imagery ability, and identifying the appropriate neural correlates. It is important that these hurdles are addressed in future research so we can sprint forward and further our knowledge about this interesting relationship.     

Timing is everything: Developmental psychopathology from a dynamic systems perspective

This article begins by comparing general systems views that have already been appropriated by developmental psychopathologists to the dynamic systems (DS) approach and the advantages of the latter perspective are detailed. It is argued that the DS framework provides a more rigorous set of principles that can be applied to the diverse disciplines and multiple levels of analyses that are so well-represented in developmental psychopathology. The ways in which DS principles can address five overarching goals that have previously been identified for the field of developmental psychopathology are discussed. In addition, the DS approach offers a wide array of methodological tools that can move the field from abstractions to concrete research designs and analytic strategies. Several of the most relevant DS concepts are explained and recent empirical studies that have applied these concepts fruitfully are reviewed.