Dynamic Field Theory (DFT) postulates that the dynamics of neural populations account for the laws of cognition, which comprises both acting and thinking. Rather than introduce DFT from scratch, the tutorial will be organized around questions that different communities typically pose when confronted with DFT. We thus aim to enter into a structured dialogue with the audience, adjusting to their needs and reacting to their interests. This idea arose from previous workshops, and tutorials (most recently at Psychonomics), in which must discussion was driven by the audience. We organize these discussions through sets of overarching questions.

How does the mind emerge from the brain?  A neural process theory of cognition is a holy grail of cognitive science. But what is meant by neural process theory ? Which neural principles would form the basis for such a theory? And what is it a theory of? What properties of cognition must such a theory address?

Dynamic Field Theory (DFT) gives specific answers to these questions, postulating that the dynamics of neural populations are the level of neural processing that most closely reflects the laws of cognition. It emphasizes the emergence of cognition from the sensory-motor domain, so that a theory of cognition must address both acting and thinking.

The development of DFT reflects this hypothesis: It started out with sensory-motor decision making over 20 years ago, but has only recently begun to address higher cognition. The somewhat demanding mathematical technology of DFT has been the focus of previous tutorials at CogSci. Recent progress in DFT poses a new challenge: The span of phenomena that DFT touches many different sub-disciplines of cognitive science, from motor control to the grounding of language. These fields use different methods, concepts, and experimental questions, making it difficult for researchers in any specific field to understand and assess DFT. This challenge is inherent as a neural theory of cognition must necessarily link to many, ultimately to all manifestations of cognition.

This challenge is also reflected at the theoretical level. Different theoretical approaches with different histories of ideas are in part based on different assumptions, some of them implicit, and call on different criteria and benchmarks to assess models.

The tutorial is aimed to address these challenges. Rather than introduce DFT from scratch, we plan to organize the tutorial around questions that different communities typically pose when confronted with DFT. We aim to enter into a structured dialogue with the audience, adjusting to their needs and reacting to their interests. This idea arose from previous workshops, and tutorials (most recently at Psychonomics), in which must discussion was driven by the audience. We organize these discussions through sets of overarching questions.