Rational Use of Cognitive Resources: Levels of Analysis Between the Computational and the Algorithmic

Marr's levels of analysis—computational, algorithmic, and implementation—have served cognitive science well over the last 30 years. But the recent increase in the popularity of the computational level raises a new challenge: How do we begin to relate models at different levels of analysis? We p...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Topics in cognitive science 2015-04, Vol.7 (2), p.217-229
Main Authors: Griffiths, Thomas L., Lieder, Falk, Goodman, Noah D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Algorithmic level
Algorithms
Bayesian models of cognition
Cognition - physiology
Computational level
Humans
Levels of analysis
Models, Theoretical
Rational process models
Resource-rational models
Thinking - physiology
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Summary:Marr's levels of analysis—computational, algorithmic, and implementation—have served cognitive science well over the last 30 years. But the recent increase in the popularity of the computational level raises a new challenge: How do we begin to relate models at different levels of analysis? We propose that it is possible to define levels of analysis that lie between the computational and the algorithmic, providing a way to build a bridge between computational‐ and algorithmic‐level models. The key idea is to push the notion of rationality, often used in defining computational‐level models, deeper toward the algorithmic level. We offer a simple recipe for reverse‐engineering the mind's cognitive strategies by deriving optimal algorithms for a series of increasingly more realistic computational architectures, which we call “resource‐rational analysis.”
ISSN:1756-8757
1756-8765
DOI:10.1111/tops.12142