Efficient Cognition: The Evolution of Representational Decision Making (The MIT Press)

Author: Armin W. SchulzPublisher: The MIT PressHardcover:ISBN 10: 0262037602ISBN 13: 978-0262037600An argument that representational decision making is more cognitively efficient, allowing an organism to adjust more easily to changes in the environment.Many organisms (including humans) make decisions by relying on mental representations. Not simply a reaction triggered by perception, representational decision making employs high-level, non-perceptual mental states with content to manage interactions with the environment. A person making a decision based on mental representations, for example, takes a step back from her perceptions at the time to assess the nature of the world she lives in. But why would organisms rely on representational decision making, and what evolutionary benefits does this reliance provide to the decision maker? In Efficient Cognition, Armin Schulz argues that representational decision making can be more cognitively efficient than non-representational decision mak