Unified Theories of Cognition

Unified theories of cognition is a book written by Allen Newell in 1987. Newell argues for the need of a set of general assumptions for cognitive models that account for all of cognition: a unified theory of cognition (UTC).

A UTC must explain how intelligent organisms flexibly react to stimuli from the environment, how they exhibit goal-directed behaviour and acquire goals rationally, how they represent knowledge (or which symbols they use), and learning.

Newell's UTC argues that the mind functions as a single system. He also claims the established cognitive models are vastly underdetermined by experimental data. Therefore, a UTC accounting for the experimental data would provide constraints on the modeling process, resulting in more rigorous and predictive models. A UTC could also be applied as theoretical constructs to a much wider range of cognitive phenomena. When a phenomenon cannot plausibly be explained by the UTC's mechanisms, it could indicate the UTC is wrong.

Newell understands the term cognition to include perception and motor control.

The cognitive architecture Soar is an implementation of a UTC.