The Origin of Epistemic Structures and Proto-Representations

Abstract

Organisms across species use the strategy of generating structures in their environment to lower cognitive complexity. Examples include pheromones, markers, color codes, etc. We provide a model of how such structures originate, and present a simulation where organisms with only reactive behavior learn, within their lifetime, to add such structures to their world to lower cognitive load. This implementation is then extended to show that the same underlying process could generate internal traces of the world (memories) in an internal environment. This model provides a novel account of the origin of internal representations. Further, as both external and internal traces are generated using the same mechanism, the model shows how an extended mind could be implemented. Also, as the stored internal traces develop entirely out of actions, these action components could be activated implicitly. This feature explains the origin of enactable and action-oriented mental content, suggested by recent experiments.