The Multipurpose Enhanced Cognitive Architecture (MECA)

In this paper, we present an introduction to MECA, the Multipurpose Enhanced Cognitive Architecture, a cognitive architecture developed by our research group and implemented in the Java language. MECA was designed based on many ideas coming from Dual Process Theory, Dynamic Subsumption, Conceptual Spaces and Grounded Cognition, and constructed using CST, a toolkit for the construction of cognitive architectures in Java, also developed by our group. Basically MECA promotes an hybridism of SOAR, used to implement rule-based processing and space-state exploration in System 2 modules, with a Dynamic Subsumption Motivational System performing the role of System 1, using a representational system based on conceptual spaces and grounded cognition. We review the conceptual background used on MECA and further provide a detailed description of the many MECA sub-systems.