ABSTRACT
One of the most useful and clarifying ideas in cognitive modeling is Anderson’s (1993) schema for understanding cognitive models in terms of frameworks, theories and models. In this paper we propose that this schema is equally valuable for describing the environment that a cognitive model acts within. Physics provides us with the correct models for representing the physical environment. However, the interaction between cognition and the physical environment is mediated by transduction processes, which are not fully understood. Thus you cannot simply slap a physics model onto a cognitive model. One way of dealing with this is to assume a transduction model that delivers what the cognitive model needs. Another approach is to drop physics and transduction completely and model the environment as it appears to the cognitive system after transduction.
