As discussed during Millhouse et al. (2022), learning and optimization is performed over multiple timescales:
- Evolutionary timescales allow brains to be capable of learning from the environment in the first place.
- Developmental timescales involve learning that occurs as the brain and body develop.
- Short timescales involve acquiring specific knowledge and skills.
For example, infant learning happens at both developmental and short timescales: infants grow their brains and bodies over longer periods while performing “intermediate-term patterns of exploration,” which include feedback that assists further learning (see: Interventionist theory of causation). Most neural networks lack this property of human development.
Similarly, while analyzing the cultural practice of dialogical deduction, Dutilh Novaes (2020) describes how human cultural practices develop at three different timescales: phylogenetic, historical, and ontogenetic. She notes that “an encompassing account of a particular aspect of human cognition and the extent to which it is shaped by cultural processes must arguably tackle all three timescales.”
#wip definitions
Further reading
- Tomasello, Michael (1999). The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition.
- Menary, Richard & Alexander Gillet (2017). “Embodying Culture: Integrated Cognitive Systems and Cultural Evolution.”