Abstract
In recent work in cognitive science, it has been proposed that cognition is a self-organizing, dynamical system. However, capturing the real-time dynamics of cognition has been a formidable challenge. Furthermore, it has been unclear whether dynamics could effectively address the emergence of abstract concepts (e.g., language, mathematics). Here, we provide evidence that a quintessentially cognitive phenomenon—the spontaneous discovery of a mathematical relation—emerges through self-organization. Participants solved a series of gear-system problems while we tracked their eye movements. They initially solved the problems by manually simulating the forces of the gears but then spontaneously discovered a mathematical solution. We show that the discovery of the mathematical relation was predicted by changes in entropy and changes in power-law behavior, two hallmarks of phase transitions. Thus, the present study demonstrates the emergence of higher order cognitive phenomena through the nonlinear dynamics of self-organization.
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This research was supported, in part, by NSF Grant BCS0643271 to J.A.D., and NSF Grant BCS0748684 to J.S.M.
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Stephen, D.G., Boncoddo, R.A., Magnuson, J.S. et al. The dynamics of insight: Mathematical discovery as a phase transition. Memory & Cognition 37, 1132–1149 (2009). https://doi.org/10.3758/MC.37.8.1132
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/MC.37.8.1132