How humans learn and represent networks

DOI10.1073/PNAS.1912328117MaRDI QIDQ5073204zbMATH OpenOpenAlexWikidataFDO

Authors Christopher W. Lynn, Danielle S. Bassett

Publication date 5 May 2022

Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1909.07186

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Applications of graph theory (05C90) Memory and learning in psychology (91E40)

Abstract: Humans communicate, receive, and store information using sequences of items -- from words in a sentence or notes in music to abstract concepts in lectures and books. The networks formed by these items (nodes) and the sequential transitions between them (edges) encode important structural features of human communication and knowledge. But how do humans learn the networks of probabilistic transitions that underlie sequences of items? Moreover, what do people's internal maps of these networks look like? Here, we introduce graph learning, a growing and interdisciplinary field focused on studying how humans learn and represent networks in the world around them. We begin by describing established results from statistical learning showing that humans are adept at detecting differences in the transition probabilities between items in a sequence. We next present recent experiments that directly control for differences in transition probabilities, demonstrating that human behavior also depends critically on the abstract network structure of transitions. Finally, we present computational models that researchers have proposed to explain the effects of network structure on human behavior and cognition. Throughout, we highlight a number of exciting open questions in the study of graph learning that will require creative insights from cognitive scientists and network scientists alike.

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Cited in

(1)

• Contributions of modern network science to the cognitive sciences: revisiting research spirals of representation and process

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