Early acquisition of voluntary motor control: a computational theory of cognition development

The formal theory of early cognition development presented here deals with cognitive development as a mapping from a finite set of given experiences to a set of cognitive functions. The theory consists of seven constraints that define the mapping uniquely. We show the compatibility and sufficiency of these constraints. The principle underlying these constraints is coding by the most efficient representation of information. The efficiency of representation is evaluated by the coding redundancy of given experiences defined as the number of real numbers that characterize experiences plus the size of the minimum decoding function. The coding redundancy of experiences by the most efficient representation corresponds to the Kolmogorov complexity of the experiences. The mapping accounts for the dependence between neonatal experience and the development of cognitive functions. In addition, our theory of development can also be seen as a metatheory of cognition that presents us a unified view of the diversity of cognitive modules