Cognitive module

A cognitive module is, in theories of the modularity of mind and the closely related society of mind theory, a specialised tool or sub-unit that can be used by other parts to resolve cognitive tasks. The question of their existence and nature is a major topic in cognitive science and evolutionary psychology. Some see cognitive modules as an independent part of the mind.^[1] Others also see new thought patterns achieved by experience as cognitive modules.^[2]

Other theories similar to the cognitive module are cognitive description,^[3] cognitive pattern^[4] and psychological mechanism. Such a mechanism, if created by evolution, is known as evolved psychological mechanism.^[5]

Examples

Some examples of cognitive modules:

• The modules controlling your hands when you ride a bike, to stop it from crashing, by minor left and right turns.
• The modules that allow a basketball player to accurately put the ball into the basket by tracking ballistic orbits.^[6]
• The modules that recognise hunger and tell you that you need food.^[7] This cognitive module may be dysfunctional for people with eating disorders, for them various non-hunger distress emotions may wrongly make them feel hungry and causes them to eat.^[8][9][10]
• The modules that cause you to appreciate a beautiful flower, painting or person.^[11]
• The modules that make humans very efficient in recognising faces, already shown in Rhesus monkeys and in two-month-old babies, see Face perception.^[12]
• The modules that cause some humans to be jealous of their partners' friends.^[13][14]
• The modules that compute the speeds of incoming vehicles and tells you if you have time to cross without crashing into said vehicles.^[15]
• The modules that cause parents to love and care for their children.^[16]
• The libido modules.^[17]
• Modules that specifically discern the movements of animals.^[18][19]
• The fight or flight reflex choice modules.^[20][21][22]

Psychological disorders – cognitive modules run amok

Many common psychological and personality disorders are caused by cognitive modules running amok.

Jealousy: A common cause of unnecessary conflict in relations is that a man is jealous of a woman's previous sexual partners before she met him.^[23] All people are born with a basic jealousy cognitive module, developed through as evolutionary strategy in order to safeguard a mate and trigger aggression towards competitors to ensure paternity and prevent bastards.^[24] If this module is activated to too strong a degree, it becomes a personality disorder.^[25][26][27]

Stalking: An extreme psychological disorder related to jealousy is stalking.^[28] A stalker is a person (usually a man) who behaves as if he had a relation to another person (usually a woman) who is not interested in him. There are also women who stalk men, men who stalk men and women who stalk women, but most common is a man stalking a woman. In modern western culture this behaviour is strongly frowned upon.

Paranoia:^[29] Being suspicious of fellow human beings is a trait to safeguard against perceived, secret plots against us, a basic human cognitive module useful for survival. But in some people, this turns into unreasonable suspiciousness where there is in reality no plotting against one. Such behaviour is by psychiatrists labeled as paranoid schizophrenia or in milder forms as paranoid personality disorder.^[30] These disorders thus occur when the suspiciousness cognitive module is triggered too often and too strongly for triggers that would not trigger this module in normal people.^[31]

Obsessive-compulsive disorder: In this quite common disorder, a person will repeatedly check, for example, that a door is locked. One may repeatedly wash hands or other body parts, sometimes for hours, to ensure cleanliness.^[32] Again, this disorder is a malfunction of a normal adaptation in all humans to check that a door is locked, to wash to keep us clean, etc.

Transference:^[33] A cognitive module developed to solve a particular problem can sometimes crop up in other situations where it is not appropriate. One may be angry at one's boss, but take the anger out on one's fellow man. Often, the transference is unconscious (see also Subconscious mind and Unconscious mind). In psychotherapy, the patient is made aware of this, which makes it easier to modify the unsuitable behaviour.^[34]

Sigmund Freud's theory of sublimation:^[35] said that cognitive modules for some activities, such as sex, may incorrectly show up in disguise in cases where they are not suitable. Freud also introduced the idea of the unconscious, which interpreted as cognitive modules where a person is not aware of the initial cause of these modules and may use them inappropriately.

Schizophrenia: is a psychotic disorder where cognitive modules are triggered too often, overwhelming the brain with information.^[36] The inability to repress overwhelming information is a cause of schizophrenia.^[37]

Treatment of cognitive module psychological disorders

Cognitive therapy is a psychotherapeutic method that helps people better understand the cognitive modules that cause them to do certain things, and to teach them alternative, more appropriate cognitive modules to use instead in the future.

Psychoanalytic view of cognitive modules

According to psychoanalytic theory, many cognitive modules are unconscious and repressed, to avoid mental conflicts. Defenses are meant to be cognitive modules used to suppress the awareness of other cognitive modules. Unconscious cognitive modules may influence our behaviour without our being aware of it.

Evolutionary psychology view of cognitive modules

In the research field of evolutionary psychology it is believed that some cognitive modules are inherited and some are created by learning, but the creation of new modules by learning is often guided by inherited modules.^[38]

For example, the ability to drive a car or throw a basketball are certainly learned and not inherited modules, but they may make use of inherited modules to rapidly compute trajectories.

There is some disagreement between different social scientists on the importance to the capabilities of the human mind of inherited modules. Evolutionary psychologists claim that other social scientists do not accept that some modules are partially inherited,^[39] other social scientists claim that evolutionary psychologists are exaggerating the importance of inherited cognitive modules.

Memory and creative thought

A very important aspect of how humans think is the ability, when encountering a situation or problem, to find more or less similar, but not identical, experiences or cognitive modules. This can be compared to what happens if you sound a tone near a piano. The piano string corresponding to this particular tone will then vibrate. But also other strings, from nearby strings, will vibrate to a lesser extent.

Exactly how the human mind does this is not known, but it is believed that when you encounter a situation or problem, many different cognitive modules are activated at the same time, and the mind selects those most useful for understanding a new situation or solving a new problem.^[40][41]

Ethics and law

Most law-abiding people have cognitive modules that stop them from committing crimes. Criminals have different modules, causing criminal behaviour. Thus, cognitive modules can be a cause of both ethical and unethical behaviour.^[42]

See also

• Cognition
• Cognitive ethology
• Language module
• Functionalism (philosophy of mind)
• Visual modularity

References

This article is based on an article in Web4Health.

1. Max Coltheart: Modularity and cognition - Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 1999
2. Tooby, John and Cosmides, Leda 1992 The Psychological Foundations of Culture, in Barkow, Jerome H., Cosmides, Leda, Tooby, John, (1992) The Adapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of Culture, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-506023-7, page 30-32.
3. Tooby, John and Cosmides, Leda 1992 The Psychological Foundations of Culture, in Barkow, Jerome H., Cosmides, Leda, Tooby, John, (1992) The Adapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of Culture, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-506023-7, page 64.
4. Doreen Kimura, Elizabeth Hampson (1994) Cognitive Pattern in Men and Women Is Influenced by Fluctuations in Sex Hormones. Current Directions in Psychological Science 3 (2), 57–61. doi:10.1111/1467-8721.ep10769964.
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40. Liane Gabora: Toward a theory of creative inklings In (R. Ascott, ed.) Art, Technology, and Consciousness, Intellect Press, p. 159-164.
41. D. Goleman, Vital lies, simple truths, Simon & Schuster 1985.
42. David Abrahamsen: The Psychology of Crime; Columbia University Press, 1960. p. 158ff