Cognitive Representation as Emulation of Perception and Behavior: Theory and Robot Models

Mental models and representations have always played a crucial role in theories of cognition. The modern concept of a mental model has been strongly influenced by Kenneth Craik who in his 1943 book The Nature of Explanation wrote: If the organism carries a “small-scale model ” of external reality and of its own possible actions within its head, it is able to try out various alternatives, conclude which is the best of them, react to future situations before they arise, utilize the knowledge of past events in dealing with the present and future, and in every way to react in a much fuller, safer, and more competent manner to the emergencies which face it. Craik himself had relatively little to say about the exact form of the internal representations or the processes manipulating them (cf. Johnson-Laird, 1989). Nevertheless, he influenced several decades of cognitive-scientific discussions and theories by suggesting that there are three crucial steps in an agent’s having such a “small-scale model”: (1) the translation of stimuli into internal representations by sensory/perceptual processes, (2) cognition as the manipulation of such internal representations and the production of ne