Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T00:50:30.289Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Abstraction: An alternative neurocognitive account of recognition, prediction, and decision making

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 June 2020

Valerie F. Reyna
Affiliation:
Department of Human Development, Human Neuroscience Institute, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY14853 [email protected] https://www.human.cornell.edu/hd/research/labs/lrdm/publications
David A. Broniatowski
Affiliation:
Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering, The George Washington University, Washington, DC20052. [email protected] https://www2.seas.gwu.edu/~broniatowski/index.html

Abstract

Gilead et al. offer a thoughtful and much-needed treatment of abstraction. However, it fails to build on an extensive literature on abstraction, representational diversity, neurocognition, and psychopathology that provides important constraints and alternative evidence-based conceptions. We draw on conceptions in software engineering, socio-technical systems engineering, and a neurocognitive theory with abstract representations of gist at its core, fuzzy-trace theory.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alba, J. W. & Hasher, L. (1983) Is memory schematic? Psychological Bulletin 93(2):203231. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.93.2.203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brainerd, C. J., Yang, Y., Reyna, V. F., Howe, M. L. & Mills, B. A. (2008) Semantic processing in “associative” false memory. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 15(6):10351053. doi: 10.3758/PBR.15.6.1035.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Broniatowski, D. A. & Reyna, V. F. (2018) A formal model of fuzzy-trace theory: Variations on framing effects and the Allais Paradox. Decision 5(4):205–52. https://doi.org/10.1037/dec0000083.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
d'Acremont, M., Fornari, E. & Bossaerts, P. (2013) Activity in inferior parietal and medial prefrontal cortex signals the accumulation of evidence in a probability learning task. PLOS Computational Biology 9:e1002895. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002895.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fukukura, J., Ferguson, M. J. & Fujita, K. (2013) Psychological distance can improve decision making under information overload via gist memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 142(3):658–65. doi: 10.1037/a0030730.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Helm, R. K., Reyna, V. F., Franz, A. A. & Novick, R. Z. (2018) Too young to plead? Risk, rationality, and plea bargaining's innocence problem in adolescents. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law 24(2):180–91. doi: 10.1037/law0000156.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mills, B. A., Reyna, V. F. & Estrada, S. (2008) Explaining contradictory relations between risk perception and risk taking. Psychological Science 19(5):429–34. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02104.x.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rasmussen, J. (1985) The role of hierarchical knowledge representation in decision making and system management. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics 15(2):234–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reyna, V. F. (2012) A new intuitionism: Meaning, memory, and development in fuzzy-trace theory. Judgment and Decision Making 7(3):332–59.Google ScholarPubMed
Reyna, V. F. & Brainerd, C. J. (2011) Dual processes in decision making and developmental neuroscience: A fuzzy-trace model. Developmental Review 31:180206.Google ScholarPubMed
Reyna, V. F., Estrada, S. M., DeMarinis, J. A., Myers, R. M., Stanisz, J. M. & Mills, B. A. (2011) Neurobiological and memory models of risky decision making in adolescents versus young adults. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 37(5):1125–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reyna, V. F., Helm, R. K., Weldon, R. B., Shah, P. D., Turpin, A. G. & Govindgari, S. (2018) Brain activation covaries with reported criminal behaviors when making risky choices: A fuzzy-trace theory approach. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 147(7):10941109.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reyna, V. F. & Panagiotopoulos, C. (in press) Morals, money, and risk taking from childhood to adulthood: The neurodevelopmental framework of fuzzy-trace theory. In: The social brain – a developmental perspective, ed. Decety, J.. The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Spreng, R. N. & Turner, G. R. (2019) The shifting architecture of cognition and brain function in older adulthood. Perspectives on Psychological Science 14(4):523–42.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed