A Simple Quantitative Model of Cognitive Tradeoff Phenomenon

A recent study of chimpanzees has shown that on the individual basis, they are, surprisingly, much better than humans in simple tasks requiring intelligence and memory. A usual explanation – called cognitive tradeoff – is that a human brain has sacrificed some of its data processing (computation) abilities in favor of enhancing the ability to communicate; as a result, while individual humans may not be as smart as possible, jointly, we can solve complex problems. A similar cognitive tradeoff phenomenon can be observed in computer clusters: the most efficient computer clusters are not formed from the fastest, most efficient computers, they are formed from not-so-fast computers which are, however, better in their communication abilities than the fastest ones. In this paper, we propose a simple model that explains the cognitive tradeoff phenomenon. 1 Formulation of the Problem Interesting empirical phenomenon. A recent study of chimpanzees [1, 2, 4] showed, somewhat surprisingly, that on the individual basis, they are much better than human in many tasks requiring intelligence. For example, they can remember more objects in images, and in conflict situations their behavior is much closer to the optimal behavior (as recommended by game theory) than the behavior of humans. Cognitive tradeoff: an explanation for this phenomenon. A current explanation for this phenomenon is based on what is called cognitive tradeoff: humans have better communication abilities, and so, human brain has to sacrifice some individual intellectual abilities to leave space for parts needed for efficient communication.