Abstract
This chapter reviews work on five themes relevant to the role of coordination dynamics in cognition. It is to be seen as a complement to the intriguing review of Bressler and Kelso (2001) and therefore will not repeat any of that material, although convergence is inevitable and will be apparent to readers of both. First, I will review the properties of relaxation oscillators, which I believe form a useful class of models for the dynamic aspects of cognition. Then I will discuss the possible role(s) of such oscillators in short-term memory, psychophysical judgment, attention, and consciousness. The approach of this chapter is, admittedly, highly speculative. Many of the ideas are only half-baked, some are still sticky dough with some crucial ingredients still to be mixed in, a few are only recipes that might not even prove to be edible. Nonetheless I believe that the juxtaposition of these ideas does lead in some interesting directions (to mix metaphors if not bread dough). Thus, I won’t apologize further for them, or indicate their respective states of doneness; I leave that to the reader.
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Ward, L.M. (2004). Oscillations and Synchrony in Cognition. In: Jirsa, V.K., Kelso, J.A.S. (eds) Coordination Dynamics: Issues and Trends. Understanding Complex Systems. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-39676-5_12
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