Multi-scale resolution of cognitive architectures: A paradigm for simulating minds and society

Abstract

We put forth a thesis, the Resolution Thesis, that suggests that cognitive science and generative social science are interdependent and should thus be mutually informative. The thesis invokes a paradigm, the reciprocal constraints paradigm, that was designed to leverage the interdependence between the social and cognitive levels of scale for the purpose of building cognitive and social simulations with better resolution. In addition to explaining our thesis, we provide the current research context, a set of issues with the thesis and some parting thoughts to provoke discussion. We see this work as an initial step to motivate both social and cognitive sciences in a new direction, one that represents some unity of purpose and interdependence of theory and methods.