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The '''Modular Cognition Framework''' ('''MCF''') is an open-ended theoretical framework for research into the way the mind is organized. It draws on the common ground shared by contemporary research in the various areas that are collectively known as ''cognitive science'' and is designed to be applicable to all these fields of research. It was established, by Michael Sharwood Smith and John Truscott in the first decade of the 21st century with a particular focus on language cognition when it was known as the ''[[The Modular Online Growth and Use of Language|MOGUL framework]]'' (Modular Online Growth and Use of Language).
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1. [[Functional specialization (brain)|'''Functional Specialisation'''.]] The mind has a modular architecture. This means it has a finite set of functionally specialised cognitive systems such as the auditory system, the motor system and the conceptual system.
2. '''Mind/Brain Relationship'''. Cognitive systems are manifested in the physical brain in various, often very different ways. This means that ''mind'' and ''brain'',
3. '''Representational Diversity'''. Each system has its own unique operating principles such that its representations are formed in an identifiable manner and in ways that distinguish them from representations in any other system. The structure of any given representation is coded in such a way as to allow it to form more complex representations of the same kind, i.e. within its own system. Primitive representations in each system are the simplest and are provided in advance as part of our biological inheritance. In this way meaning (conceptual) representations can be combined with other conceptual representations to form more complex meanings.
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9. '''Acquisition by Processing'''. Change (development, acquisition, growth) occurs as a result of online processing. This principle is reflected in the following statement: ''acquisition is the lingering effect of processing'' (Truscott and Sharwood Smith 2004a),<ref>Truscott, J & M. Sharwood Smith. (2004a). Acquisition by processing: a modular perspective on language development. ''Bilingualism: Language and Cognition'' 7,1, 1-2.</ref> (Truscott and Sharwood Smith 2004).<ref>Truscott, J & M. Sharwood Smith. (2004). How APT is your theory: present status and future prospects. ''Bilingualism: Language and Cognition'' 7,1,43-47.</ref>
9. '''Variable Activation Levels'''. Cognitive representations are activated online to different degrees and may compete with one another for participation in the building of a more complex representations online. This is partly because they possess a '''resting level of activation''' which will rise or decline according to the frequency and regularity with which they are activated. Extremely high levels of activation are associated with phenomena described variously as ''attention'', ''awareness'' and ''consciousness''. Higher consciousness, which engages thought processes, is characterised by particularly intense levels of activation. This involves networks of representations (''schemas'') that simultaneously engage most if not all of the mind's systems. During this widespread, synchronised activity, the content of particular conceptual representations along with all their associated representations in other systems appears in our minds in perceptual form, ''in our mind's eye'' as the expression goes. This is achieved via the combined activation of the five sensory perceptual systems. Concepts are thus transformed, or ''projected'' into thought processes as percepts.
10. '''[[Language]] versus [[Linguistics|Linguistic]]'''. Human '''language''' development and use comes from product of the online interaction of '''all cognitive systems'''. However, it qualifies as ''human language'' by virtue of one, or two (depending the linguistic-theoretical perspective adopted) functionally specialized systems that have evolved specifically to handle '''linguistic''' structure.
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==External links==
* [https://www.cognitionframework.com/] Modular Cognition Framework website.
[[Category:Cognitive architecture]]
[[Category:Psychological theories]]
[[Category:Theories of language]]
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