Modeling high-order human intelligence with intelligence of swarm

Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is a type of meta-heuristic optimization method built on the basis of the principle of collective behaviors exhibited by simple organisms. Although PSO is a model of social behaviors, the present research attempts to model learning behaviors of an individual human with PSO in order to evaluate our hypothesis that the dynamics of knowledge that are being acquired and updated in our mind resemble the dynamics of social interactions exhibited by swarms. A simulation study showed that a cognitive model with PSO was able to replicate not only manifested cognitive behaviors but also latent cognitive behaviors, resulting in the acquisition of at least two dissimilar yet functional solutions for a given task.