The Recommendation Functional Architecture as the Basis for a Neurophysiological Understanding of Cognition

A definition of the scope of a scientific theory of human cognition is proposed in which for any psychological state a corresponding physiological state can be identified, and causal relationships between psychological states have corresponding causal relationships between physiological states. The vital role of a simple functional architecture in functionally complex commercial electronic systems is described, and it is argued that selection pressures have resulted in simple functional architectures in biological brains. However, the functional architecture is qualitatively different from the architectures in electronic systems. Electronic systems have the instruction architecture in which functional components exchange unambiguous information. The only alternative is the recommendation architecture in which functional components exchange ambiguous information. Systems with the recommendation architecture demonstrate phenomena with a striking similarity to psychological experiences such as learning, object recognition, associative memory, dream sleep without recall, constant sensory independent sequences of mental images, and individual differences between the experience of the same conditions. All of these phenomena can be described in a consistent fashion on both psychological and physiological levels. It is therefore argued that biological brains have the recommendation architecture, and that this architecture makes possible a scientific theory of cognition. The nature of representation in such an architecture is discussed. Characteristics of a Neurophysiologically Based Theory of Cognition A theory in the physical sciences establishes a correspondence between physical states at different levels of description detail in such a way that causal connections between states at the more detailed level exist whenever there are causal connections between the corresponding states at a higher level of description. For example, the Bardeen, Cooper and Schrieffer (1957) theory of superconductivity established descriptions of electrical current flow at normal and extremely low temperatures. At a high temperature these descriptions were in terms of metals, electrical current, and temperature. At a detailed quantum mechanical level the descriptions were in terms of ordered atomic structure with limited defects in the order, electron states which moved electrical charge, and energies. Causal connections at high level involved the decay of current with time (i.e. electrical resistance) at normal temperatures and the absence of such decay at low temperatures. The corresponding causal connections at the quantum mechanical level involved the movement of charge by individual electrons at normal temperatures and the scattering of individual electrons by defects blocking the movement of charge. Moving associations of electrons which can only form at low temperatures carry the charge at those temperatures, and these associations cannot be scattered by defects because such scattering would require enough energy to break up the association. Such a theory is regarded as highly successful in the physical sciences. An analogous theory of cognition would need to propose psychological state descriptions X and corresponding physiological state descriptions x for which if a causal connection exists between states X 1 and X 2 then a causal connection also exists between the corresponding states x 1 and x 2 . A psychological state description would include emotional, mental, perceptual and activity descriptions. An example might be simultaneously over a short period of time feeling mildly angry, reminiscing about some specific past event, and performing a task involving comparison of two visual images. The corresponding physiological state description