Towards a category theory approach to analogy: Analyzing re-representation and acquisition of numerical knowledge.

ABSTRACT: Category Theory, a branch of mathematics, has shown promise as a modeling framework for higher-level cognition. We introduce an algebraic model for analogy that uses the language of category theory to explore analogy-related cognitive phenomena. To illustrate the potential of this approach, we use this model to explore three objects of study in cognitive literature. First, (a) we use commutative diagrams to analyze an effect of playing particular educational board games on the learning of numbers. Second, (b) we employ a notion called coequalizer as a formal model of re-representation that explains a property of computational models of analogy called "flexibility" whereby non-similar representational elements are considered matches and placed in structural correspondence. Finally, (c) we b

SUBMITTER: Navarrete JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5589272 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature