01436nas a2200133   4500008004100000245004800041210004600089260000900135300001400144490000600158520106400164100002301228856005101251       2004                        eng d00aCognitive Paradigms: Which One is the Best?0 aCognitive Paradigms Which One is the Best  cJune  a135–1560 v53 aI discuss the suitability of different paradigms for studying cognition. I use a virtual laboratory that implements five different representative models for controlling animats: a rule-based system, a behaviour-based system, a concept-based system, a neural network, and a Braitenberg architecture. Through different experiments, I compare the performance of the models and conclude that there is no "best" model, since different models are better for different things in different contexts. Using the results as an empirical philosophical aid, I note that there is no "best" approach for studying cognition, since different paradigms have all advantages and disadvantages, since they study different aspects of cognition from different contexts. This has implications for current debates on "proper" approaches for cognition: all approaches are a bit proper, but none will be "proper enough". I draw remarks on the notion of cognition abstracting from all the approaches used to study it, and propose a simple classification for different types of cognition.1 aGershenson, Carlos  uhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cogsys.2003.10.002