Cognitive Architectures: Valid Control Mechanisms for Spatial Information Processing

In this paper, we address the issue of how to identify appropriate mechanisms for cognitive control in a system that incorporates complex, spatial information processing to represent human-level competence. Our solution to this difficult issue is to use a cognitive architecture, which contains well-validated mechanisms for many aspects of human cognition, including cognitive control. This approach allows us to focus on developing theoretically motivated mechanisms for spatial competence that can be integrated into the existing architecture. The result is a more detailed and comprehensive theory, which includes a specification of how other cognitive capacities interact with spatial information processing mechanisms to generate human performance.