Control of Cognition
David E. Kieras · Oxford University Press eBooks · 2007
Cognitive architectures are the current form of the traditional computer metaphor in which human cognition is analyzed in information-processing terms. This chapter uses a radically updated version of the computer metaphor to present how cognition is controlled. Input and output control are briefly presented, but the emphasis is on the control of sequential and parallel execution in cognition and the mechanisms of executive processes, which are cognitive processes that control the system as a whole, including other cognitive processes. The EPIC (executive process-interactive control) architecture provides specific examples of alternative mechanisms. Unlike EPIC, many extant architectures are based on concepts that are less powerful than current computer technology. Instead, the modern computer metaphor should be setting the theoretical lower bound on the sophistication of human cognitive mechanisms.