Interacting cognitive subsystems: A systemic approach to cognitive-affective interaction and change

Abstract

Interacting Cognitive Subsytems (ICS) is a comprehensive systemic model of the organisation and function of the resources underlying human cognition. in this paper we use ICS to provide a conceptual framework for understanding normal and dysfunctional cognitive-affective relationships, and their modification.

ICS proposes nine interacting cognitive subsystems, each specialised for handling a specific type of information. We describe the operations of ICS and its account of emotion development and production. ICS emphasises the importance, as part of the total cognitive configuration producing emotion, of a schematic synthetic level of processing that integrates both propositional meaning and direct sensory contributions. Processing at this level corresponds, subjectively, to holisitc “sense” or “feeling” rather than to thoughts or images. We illustrate this emphasis by comparison of ICS with the model underlying cognitive therapy.

By applying ICS to the maintenance of depression, we illustrate the importance of configural and pattern sensitive aspects of cognitive processing within this approach. Similar considerations, at a more detailed level, enable us to apply ICS to resolve some of the anomalies of mood congruent memory.