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The Social Route to Abstraction: Interaction and Diversity Enhance Performance and Transfer in a Rule-Based
Kristian Tylén1,2, Riccardo Fusaroli1,2,3, Sara Møller Østergaard1
1Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, Aarhus University.
Cognitive Science
|September 14, 2023
Summary
Social interaction significantly boosts abstract thinking and problem-solving skills. Groups outperformed individuals and agents by effectively identifying underlying rules, demonstrating the power of collaborative cognition.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Science
- Social Psychology
- Artificial Intelligence
Background:
- Abstract thinking and problem-solving are fundamental to human cognition.
- These abilities facilitate knowledge transfer across different contexts.
- Social interaction, dialogue, and shared attention may be crucial for complex reasoning.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if social interaction enhances rule induction and problem-solving performance.
- To compare group versus individual performance on cognitive tasks.
- To explore the relationship between social dynamics and cognitive outcomes.
Main Methods:
- An experimental study involving individuals and groups performing a visual categorization task across three complexity levels.
- A transfer task was used to assess the generalization of learned rules.
- Participant behavior was compared against simulated agents using exemplar learning.
Main Results:
- Groups demonstrated superior performance compared to individuals and agents in both training and transfer tasks.
- Group generalization accuracy increased with task complexity.
- Semantic diversity in group dialogue predicted performance variations, linking social interaction to cognitive diversity and abstraction.
Conclusions:
- Social interaction enhances cognitive processes like rule induction, leading to improved problem-solving.
- Collaborative learning and diverse perspectives within groups facilitate more effective abstraction.
- The findings highlight the critical role of social dynamics in higher-order cognitive functions.
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