Relational Thinking is at the Core of the Constructive, Top-Down Processes in Humans
Relational Thinking is at the Core of the Constructive, Top-Down Processes in Humans

Summary/Abstract: In almost all domains of psychology and cognitive science, two distinct points of view oppose each other: the first one is that the understanding of the phenomena of the human cognitive system should be sought in the peculiarities of the biological organization of the people; the second one places the emphasis on our memory – our knowledge and beliefs. This article discusses the second paradigm, the so-called constructivism, in the domains of vision, social relationships, emotions, decision-making, and language. The hypothesis is that the constructivist phenomena are associated not with the individual elements but with the relations between them. A logical consequence from this hypothesis is that some part of the human relational knowledge should be innate and speculatively, some possible sources of such knowledge are discussed. In addition to the general theoretical framework, the article also presents some computer simulations that better highlight the possible underlying mechanisms behind these processes.

• Details
• Contents