Towards a general modeling framework of resource competition in cognitive development

Abstract

The current paper presents an integrated formal model of typical and atypical development based on the mechanisms of mutualism and resource competition. The mutualistic network model is extended with the dynamics of competition for limited resources, such as time and environmental factors. The proposed model generates patterns that resemble established phenomena in cognitive development: the positive manifold, developmental phases, developmental delays and lack of early indicators in atypical development, developmental regression, and “quasi‐autism” caused by extreme environmental deprivation. The presented modeling framework fits a general movement towards formal theory construction in psychology. The model is easy to replicate and develop further, and we offer several avenues for future work.

Formalizing theories of child development: Introduction to the special section

“…On the other hand, those abilities are also in competition for the overall supply of available developmental resources. de Ron et al (2023) set out the formal foundations of their approach using differential equations derived from models of species interactions from ecology. They then simulate several scenarios using these equations.…”

“…In the second paper, Driver and Tomasik (2023) tackle the difficult question of how to bridge the gap between informally specified theoretical models and statistical models that can be fitted to data. Using the interaction between development of language and mathematics skills as a case in point, Driver and Tomasik (2023) implement different theoretical views on how language and mathematics skills are related: (a) the thinking function hypothesis, which views both language and mathematics development as being influenced by a common factor, analogous to the g-factor of intelligence, (b) the medium function hypothesis, which suggests that improvements in language skills facilitate the development of mathematics skills, and (c) the specialization hypothesis, which specifies a trade-off whereby greater investments into one skill negatively affect the other (similar to the resource competition model of de Ron et al, 2023). Applying the framework of continuous time structural equation modeling to a large developmental dataset, Driver and Tomasik (2023) show how the different hypotheses may be represented in a common modeling framework.…”