A novel standard for graphical representation of mental models and processes in cognitive sciences

Abstract

Cognitive Science has positioned itself to be a common ground in which models of mental processes from multiple disciplines merge, situating itself as a common field for new learning theories, or for formalizing existing ones. However, the authors have identified a need for updating the existing graphical representations by incorporating more accessible understanding for teachers and researchers in cross- multidisciplinary fields. In this regard, the present investigation attempts to generate a standard graphical language to represent complex mental processes by the introduction of functional principles, schemes and models that have been successfully used in technical areas such as adaptive control systems, algorithm flow charts, and artificial intelligence. This graphical representation, entitled “Cognitive Functional Representation” (CFR), is further shown to be efficacious in incorporating the essence of complex cognitive theories.