title: Relational knowledge: the foundation of higher cognition.
abstract: Accumulating evidence on the nature, function and acquisition of relational knowledge indicates a crucial role of such knowledge in higher cognitive processes. In this review, we specify the essential properties of relational knowledge, together with the role it plays in reasoning, categorisation, planning, quantification and language. Furthermore, we discuss the processes involved in its acquisition and how these processes have been implemented in contemporary neural network models. We present evidence demonstrating that relational knowledge integrates heuristic and analytic cognition, is important for symbolic processes and the creation of novelty, activates specific regions of the prefrontal cortex, and is the most recently evolved and slowest-developing cognitive process. Arguably, relational knowledge represents the core of higher cognition.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Griffith University, Nathan 4111, Australia. g.halford@griffith.edu.au
authors.forename: Graeme S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Halford
authors.forename: William H
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.forename: Steven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Phillips
mesh_terms: D001931:Brain Mapping; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D003210:Concept Formation; D006801:Humans; D019359:Knowledge; D007802:Language; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology; D008960:Models, Psychological; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D011340:Problem Solving / Q000502:physiology