Exploring cognitive machines—Neural models of reasoning, illustrated through the two-sticks paradigm

Cognition is a complex and wide-ranging field of study. We suggest a possible approach to modelling reasoning as a particular aspect of cognition involving the use of forward and inverse internal models to allow the effect of actions on the world to be considered. The field of animal reasoning provides an excellent source of manageable problems. We describe one of these, the two-sticks paradigm, in detail and construct a model of how the reasoning process involved in solving this paradigm might operate. Results from this simulation are presented, and we discuss important features of the model, in particular the use of spatially invariant goal representations and fast movements of reward.