Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Bennett, Dmitry, Gobet, Fernand
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.18665
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866918257677565952
author Bennett, Dmitry
Gobet, Fernand
author_facet Bennett, Dmitry
Gobet, Fernand
contents A key issue in cognitive science concerns the fundamental psychological processes that underlie the formation and retrieval of multiple types of concepts in short-term and long-term memory (STM and LTM, respectively). We propose that chunking mechanisms play an essential role and show how the CogAct computational model grounds concept learning in fundamental cognitive processes and structures (such as chunking, attention, STM and LTM). First are the in-principle demonstrations, with CogAct automatically adapting to learn a range of categories from simple logical functions, to artificial categories, to natural raw (as opposed to natural pre-processed) concepts in the dissimilar domains of literature, chess and music. This kind of adaptive learning is difficult for most other psychological models, e.g., with cognitive models stopping at modelling artificial categories and (non-GPT) models based on deep learning requiring task-specific changes to the architecture. Secondly, we offer novel ways of designing human benchmarks for concept learning experiments and simulations accounting for subjectivity, ways to control for individual human experiences, all while keeping to real-life complex categories. We ground CogAct in simulations of subjective conceptual spaces of individual human participants, capturing humans subjective judgements in music, with the models learning from raw music score data without bootstrapping to pre-built knowledge structures. The CogAct simulations are compared to those obtained by a deep-learning model. These findings integrate concept learning and adaptation to complexity into the broader theories of cognitive psychology. Our approach may also be used in psychological applications that move away from modelling the average participant and towards capturing subjective concept space.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_18665
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Automatic Adaptation to Concept Complexity and Subjective Natural Concepts: A Cognitive Model based on Chunking
Bennett, Dmitry
Gobet, Fernand
Artificial Intelligence
A key issue in cognitive science concerns the fundamental psychological processes that underlie the formation and retrieval of multiple types of concepts in short-term and long-term memory (STM and LTM, respectively). We propose that chunking mechanisms play an essential role and show how the CogAct computational model grounds concept learning in fundamental cognitive processes and structures (such as chunking, attention, STM and LTM). First are the in-principle demonstrations, with CogAct automatically adapting to learn a range of categories from simple logical functions, to artificial categories, to natural raw (as opposed to natural pre-processed) concepts in the dissimilar domains of literature, chess and music. This kind of adaptive learning is difficult for most other psychological models, e.g., with cognitive models stopping at modelling artificial categories and (non-GPT) models based on deep learning requiring task-specific changes to the architecture. Secondly, we offer novel ways of designing human benchmarks for concept learning experiments and simulations accounting for subjectivity, ways to control for individual human experiences, all while keeping to real-life complex categories. We ground CogAct in simulations of subjective conceptual spaces of individual human participants, capturing humans subjective judgements in music, with the models learning from raw music score data without bootstrapping to pre-built knowledge structures. The CogAct simulations are compared to those obtained by a deep-learning model. These findings integrate concept learning and adaptation to complexity into the broader theories of cognitive psychology. Our approach may also be used in psychological applications that move away from modelling the average participant and towards capturing subjective concept space.
title Automatic Adaptation to Concept Complexity and Subjective Natural Concepts: A Cognitive Model based on Chunking
topic Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.18665