Modeling human cognition is challenging because there are infinitely many mechanisms that can generate any given observation. Some researchers address this by constraining the hypothesis space through assumptions about what the human mind can and cannot do, while others constrain it through principles of rationality and adaptation. Recent work in economics, psychology, neuroscience, and linguistics has begun to integrate both approaches by augmenting rational models with cognitive constraints, incorporating rational principles into cognitive architectures, and applying optimality principles to understanding neural representations. We identify the rational use of limited resources as a unifying principle underlying these diverse approaches, expressing it in a new cognitive modeling paradigm called resource-rational analysis. The integration of rational principles with realistic cognitive constraints makes resource-rational analysis a promising framework for reverse-engineering cognitive mechanisms and representations. It has already shed new light on the debate about human rationality and can be leveraged to revisit classic questions of cognitive psychology within a principled computational framework. We demonstrate that resource-rational models can reconcile the mind's most impressive cognitive skills with people's ostensive irrationality. Resource-rational analysis also provides a new way to connect psychological theory more deeply with artificial intelligence, economics, neuroscience, and linguistics.

中文翻译：

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资源理性分析：将人类认知理解为对有限计算资源的最佳利用

对人类认知建模具有挑战性，因为有无数种机制可以产生任何给定的观察结果。一些研究人员通过对人类思维能做什么和不能做什么的假设来限制假设空间来解决这个问题，而另一些研究人员则通过理性和适应原则来限制它。最近在经济学、心理学、神经科学和语言学方面的工作已经开始通过增强具有认知约束的理性模型、将理性原则纳入认知架构以及将最优性原则应用于理解神经表征来整合这两种方法。我们将有限资源的合理使用确定为这些不同方法背后的统一原则，并以一种新的认知建模范式表达它，称为资源理性分析. 理性原则与现实认知约束的结合使资源理性分析成为逆向工程认知机制和表示的有前景的框架。它已经为关于人类理性的辩论提供了新的思路，并且可以用来在有原则的计算框架内重新审视认知心理学的经典问题。我们证明，资源理性模型可以调和大脑最令人印象深刻的认知技能与人们表面上的非理性。资源理性分析还提供了一种将心理学理论更深入地与人工智能、经济学、神经科学和语言学联系起来的新方法。