Contributions of modern network science to the cognitive sciences: revisiting research spirals of representation and process

Abstract

Modelling the structure of cognitive systems is a central goal of the cognitive sciences—a goal that has greatly benefitted from the application of network science approaches. This paper provides an overview of how network science has been applied to the cognitive sciences, with a specific focus on the two research ‘spirals’ of cognitive sciences related to the representation and processes of the human mind. For each spiral, we first review classic papers in the psychological sciences that have drawn on graph-theoretic ideas or frameworks before the advent of modern network science approaches. We then discuss how current research in these areas has been shaped by modern network science, which provides the mathematical framework and methodological tools for psychologists to (i) represent cognitive network structure and (ii) investigate and model the psychological processes that occur in these cognitive networks. Finally, we briefly comment on the future of, and the challenges facing, cognitive network science.