Cognition as a Control System

1. Framing the Problem

Most descriptions of cognition focus on content: beliefs, thoughts, representations, or conclusions. Cognitive Cybernetics begins elsewhere.

This article defines cognition as a control system: a regulated process that governs how inference moves, stabilizes, terminates, or reconfigures over time.

The central claim is structural:

Cognitive outcomes are determined less by what is processed and more by how processing is regulated.

This framing allows cognition to be analyzed independently of intelligence, correctness, emotion, motivation, or domain expertise.

2. Control vs Content

In a control-theoretic view, cognition separates into two layers:

• Content Layer Symbols, concepts, data, beliefs, representations.
• Control Layer Mechanisms that regulate:
  • when inference starts
  • how long it continues
  • which pathways are reinforced
  • when evaluation stops
  • when closure is triggered

Failures commonly attributed to “bad reasoning” often originate in the control layer, not the content layer.

A system can process high-quality content while operating under degraded control regulation.

3. Cognition as a Dynamic System

Cognition is not a static computation. It is a time-extended process governed by regulation.

Key properties:

• Cognition unfolds through state transitions
• Each transition is constrained by control signals
• Control signals persist across iterations
• Outcomes are path-dependent

This means cognition cannot be fully explained by inspecting isolated decisions or conclusions. The trajectory matters more than any single state.

4. Control Functions in Cognition

At a structural level, cognitive control performs four primary functions:

4.1 Initiation

Determines when inference begins and what qualifies as a valid entry point.

4.2 Navigation

Regulates movement through inference space:

• branching
• recursion
• hypothesis expansion
• comparison depth

4.3 Evaluation

Determines how signals are weighted, compared, or suppressed during processing.

4.4 Termination

Controls closure:

• when reasoning stops
• what counts as “resolved”
• whether ambiguity is tolerated or eliminated

These functions operate continuously, often implicitly, and shape cognition regardless of content quality.

5. Feedback and Regulation

Cognitive control systems are feedback-driven. Each inference cycle produces signals that feed back into the control layer, adjusting:

• future thresholds
• recursion limits
• evaluation sensitivity
• closure tolerance

Over time, feedback stabilizes the system into preferred operating regimes.

This stabilization is not necessarily optimal. It is structurally efficient under prevailing constraints.

6. Stability Without Correctness

A critical implication of the control-system framing: Cognitive stability does not imply cognitive correctness.

A system can:

• remain internally consistent
• produce fluent outputs
• respond rapidly
• appear coherent

while operating within a constrained or degraded control regime.

Stability indicates regulation, not validity.

7. Why Intelligence Is Not Protective

Higher intelligence increases content capacity, not control immunity.

If control regulation:

• enforces early closure
• suppresses recursion
• narrows evaluation bandwidth
• prioritizes termination over resolution

then intelligence accelerates convergence within a constrained space rather than preventing it.

This explains why highly capable systems can exhibit rigid or repetitive cognition.

8. Control Failure Without Error Signals

Control degradation often precedes visible failure.

Common characteristics:

• Outputs remain acceptable
• Performance metrics do not immediately drop
• No explicit contradiction appears
• The system “functions”

The failure exists at the regulatory level, where:

• degrees of freedom shrink
• alternative pathways are suppressed
• reconfiguration becomes difficult

By the time content errors appear, control failure is already entrenched.

9. Implications of the Control Perspective

Viewing cognition as a control system enables:

• Diagnosis without attributing bias, intent, or emotion
• Substrate-independent analysis (human, machine, hybrid)
• Explanation of persistent failure modes without invoking ignorance
• Separation of performance from autonomy

This perspective does not replace traditional cognitive models. It operates at a different layer.

10. Boundary Conditions

This article establishes only the structural framing.

It does not:

• propose corrective strategies
• evaluate desirability
• assign responsibility
• introduce emotional or motivational variables

Those belong to other domains.

11. Closing Statement

Cognition, at its core, is not a sequence of thoughts. It is a regulated system governing how inference moves through time.

Understanding cognition requires analyzing the control structures that shape its motion, not just the content it produces.

This control-system framing is the foundation upon which Cognitive Cybernetics is built.