Beyond Individuals: Collective Predictive Coding for Memory, Attention, and the Emergence of Language

TL;DR

This paper discusses how collective predictive coding models memory, attention, and language emergence at the group level, proposing language as an external shared representation shaped by collective cognition.

Contribution

It introduces the Collective Predictive Coding hypothesis, extending individual cognitive concepts to group-level processes and emphasizing language as a collective external model.

Findings

Language functions as a shared external representation.

Group-level cognition influences language structure.

Shared world models emerge through collective prediction.

Abstract

This commentary extends the discussion by Parr et al. on memory and attention beyond individual cognitive systems. From the perspective of the Collective Predictive Coding (CPC) hypothesis -- a framework for understanding these faculties and the emergence of language at the group level -- we introduce a hypothetical idea: that language, with its embedded distributional semantics, serves as a collectively formed external representation. CPC generalises the concepts of individual memory and attention to the collective level. This offers a new perspective on how shared linguistic structures, which may embrace collective world models learned through next-word prediction, emerge from and shape group-level cognition.