title: Analogy, cognitive architecture and universal construction: a tale of two systematicities.
abstract: Cognitive science recognizes two kinds of systematicity: (1) as the property where certain cognitive capacities imply certain other related cognitive capacities (Fodor and Pylyshyn); and (2) as the principle that analogical mappings based on collections of connected relations are preferred over relations in isolation (Gentner). Whether these kinds of systematicity are two aspects of a deeper property of cognition is hitherto unknown. Here, it is shown that both derive from the formal, category-theoretic notion of universal construction. In conceptual/psychological terms, a universal construction is a form of optimization of cognitive resources: optimizing the re-utilization of common component processes for common task components. Systematic cognitive capacity and the capacity for analogy are hallmarks of human cognition, which suggests that universal constructions (in the category-theoretic sense) are a crucial component of human cognitive architecture.
authors.affiliation: Mathematical Neuroinformatics Group, Human Technology Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.
authors.forename: Steven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Phillips
mesh_terms: D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D019336:Cognitive Science / Q000379:methods; D003210:Concept Formation / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008960:Models, Psychological; D011582:Psychological Theory