Evolution of diverse (and advanced) cognitive abilities through adaptive fine-tuning of learning and chunking mechanisms

TL;DR

This paper proposes that the evolution of complex cognitive abilities can be explained by the adaptive fine-tuning of basic learning and chunking mechanisms, providing a unified framework for understanding cognition across species.

Contribution

It introduces a theory that models cognitive evolution through the gradual fine-tuning of learning and chunking mechanisms, linking simple processes to complex abilities.

Findings

Chunking mechanisms are crucial for cognitive capabilities.

Fine-tuning of learning mechanisms explains differences in cognition.

The approach applies to both animal and human cognition.

Abstract

The evolution of cognition is frequently discussed as the evolution of cognitive abilities or the evolution of some neuronal structures in the brain. However, since such traits or abilities are often highly complex, understanding their evolution requires explaining how they could have gradually evolved through selection acting on heritable variations in simpler cognitive mechanisms. With this in mind, making use of a previously proposed theory, here we show how the evolution of cognitive abilities can be captured by the fine-tuning of basic learning mechanisms and, in particular, chunking mechanisms. We use the term chunking broadly for all types of non-elemental learning, claiming that the process by which elements are combined into chunks and associated with other chunks, or elements, is critical for what the brain can do, and that it must be fine-tuned to ecological conditions. We discuss the relevance of this approach to studies in animal cognition, using examples from animal foraging and decision-making, problem solving, and cognitive flexibility. Finally, we explain how even the apparent human-animal gap in sequence learning ability can be explained in terms of different fine-tunings of a similar chunking process.