Leonid Perlovsky - Knowledge Instinct

The term knowledge instinct is used by Leonid Perlovsky in his book Neural Networks and Intellect: Using Model-Based Concepts and other publications. In his works the knowledge instinct is recognized on a par with other ‘basic instincts’ such as instincts for food and procreation as a fundamental mechanism of human functioning.

The existence of knowledge instinct follows from the cognitive and neural evidence about the brain mechanisms of perception and cognition, as well as mathematical modeling of these mechanisms. The conclusion that that humans and higher animals have a special instinct responsible for cognition is supported by several other researchers. Harry Harlow discovered that monkeys as well as humans have the drive for positive stimulation, regardless of satisfaction of drives such as hunger; Daniel Berlyne discussed curiosity in this regard; Leon Festinger, introduced the notion of cognitive dissonance and described many experiments on the drive of humans to reduce dissonance; John Cacioppo discussed the need for cognition.

The fundamental nature of this mechanism is related to the fact that our knowledge always has to be modified to fit the current situations. One rarely sees exactly the same object: illumination, angles, surrounding objects are usually different; therefore, adaptation-learning is required. A mathematical formulation of the mind mechanisms (Perlovsky 2006) emphasizes the fundamental nature of our desire for knowledge. Virtually all learning and adaptive algorithms (tens of thousands of publications) maximize correspondence between the algorithm internal structure (knowledge in a wide sense) and objects of recognition. Concept-models that our mind uses for understanding the world are in a constant need of adaptation. Knowledge is not just a static state; it is in a constant process of adaptation and learning. Without adaptation of concept-models humans and animals will not be able to understand the ever-changing surrounding world. They will not be able to orient ourselves or satisfy any of the bodily needs. Therefore, animals must have an inborn need, a drive, an instinct to improve knowledge, called the knowledge instinct. Mathematically it is described as a maximization of a similarity measure between the knowledge stored in mind concepts and the world as it is sensed by sensory organs.