Temporal heterogeneity in cognitive architectures

In 2020, Mc Fadden published an article in which he discusses how algorithms can be encoded in time and space. By analyzing the topology of the cytoarchitecture of the brain, cognitive architectures can understand the underlying mechanisms that have led to the development of human intelligence in space. In this study, our focus lies in investigating temporal heterogeneity as a mechanism that the brain could have developed not solely as a biological constraint, but also as an evolutionary advantage. To accomplish this, we employed virtual agents within a virtual environment and constructed a prototype cognitive architecture. Subsequently, we compared the benefits and drawbacks of having this cognitive architecture operate under a model of temporal heterogeneity versus one characterized by temporal homogeneity. At the conclusion of the article, we present the results obtained from two perspectives. From a quantitative standpoint, we contrast the agents’ adaptation to the environment based on the cognitive architecture model employed by each agent. On this front, we found evidence that temporal heterogeneity might be useful in finding parameter optimizations faster, amongst other benefits. From a qualitative perspective, we examine the potential of this model to explore the cognitive processes of the virtual agents, concluding that a different representation of percepts is needed, which we further discuss.