A neural architecture for grounded cognition: Representation, structure, dynamics and learning

Human cognition is characterized by three important features: productivity, dynamics and grounding. These features can be integrated in a neural architecture. The representations in this architecture are not symbol tokens, that can be copied and transported. Instead, the representations always remain ldquoin siturdquo, because they are grounded in perception, action, emotion, associations and (semantic) relations. The neural architecture shows how these representations can be combined in a productive manner, and how dynamics influences this process. The constraints that each of these features impose on each other could result in an architecture in which the local and the global aspects of cognition interact in processing and learning.