Towards a computational theory of cognitive maps

摘要

A computational theory of cognitive maps is developed which can explain some of the current findings about cognitive maps in the psychological literature and which provides a coherent framework for future development. The theory is tested with several computer implementations which demonstrate how the shape of the environment is computed and how one's conceptual representation of the environment is derived. We begin with the idea that the cognitive mapping process should be studied as two loosely coupled modules: The first module, known as the raw cognitive map, is computed from information made explicit in Marr's 212-D sketch and not from high-level descriptions of what we perceive. The second module, known as the full cognitive map, takes the raw cognitive map as input and produces different “abstract representations” for solving high-level spatial tasks faced by the individual.