Compact internal representation as a functional basis for protocognitive exploration of dynamic environments

Abstract

Nature has provided living beings with a set of cognitive properties that enables subjective perception of the external world with the aim of constructing behaviors and survival within specific environments. A simple but comprehensive example is a near-range searching for a target by a mobile agent in a time-evolving environment. It requires fast and reliable generation of flexible behaviors that must take into account not only the current state of the environment and of the agent, but also infer on their future states.