Collaborative Research: Building a Unified Theory-Driven Methodology for Identification of Elementary Cognitive Systems

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Instant by instant, we take in all of the information that we can gather with our senses, and we organize that information into objects and events. This is the foundation for our ability to function in the real world. While we can talk in general terms about how and why we function with such effectiveness and efficiency, a satisfactory scientific explanation requires much more. In particular, it requires a way of relating the things we can measure---specifically, the frequency with which we choose certain to choose certain actions and the time it takes to make those choices---to each other and to our hypotheses for how and why we do these things. Currently, there is no general way of doing this: the work to be accomplished with this support will fundamentally change this state of affairs.The creation of a unified theoretical approach to characterizing the ways in which we organize our perception of the world will open up numerous avenues of research linking behavior and neurobiology. With the aid of the theoretical language that this project will produce, there will be systematic and well-defined ways of testing competing hypotheses for both what we do with perceptual information and how we do it. Critically, because this language will be extremely general and will not be tied to a particular set of ideas or theory, scientists from competing perspectives will be able to frame their ideas using a common vocabulary, something that is not currently possible. In addition, since this language will be mathematical, it will possess an exceptional level of rigor and internal consistency. Finally, this language will demonstrate its utility and power by being applied to a set of thorny issues in the contemporary study of perceptual organization.