# Beyond Individuals: Collective Predictive Coding for Memory, Attention, and the Emergence of Language

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.15859 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.15859/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 8 of its 15 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 20 Aug 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 8 of 8)

- [Attention Is All You Need](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.03762/) (2017)
- [Mamba: Linear-Time Sequence Modeling with Selective State Spaces](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.00752/) (2023)
- [Symbol Emergence in Cognitive Developmental Systems: a Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.08829/) (2018)
- [World Models and Predictive Coding for Cognitive and Developmental Robotics: Frontiers and Challenges](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.05832/) (2023)
- [Emergent Communication through Metropolis-Hastings Naming Game with Deep Generative Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.12392/) (2022)
- [Generative Emergent Communication: Large Language Model is a Collective World Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.00226/) (2024)
- [Constructive Approach to Bidirectional Influence between Qualia Structure and Language Emergence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.09413/) (2024)
- [System 0/1/2/3: Quad-process theory for multi-timescale embodied collective cognitive systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.06138/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

This commentary extends the discussion by Parr et al. on memory and attention beyond individual cognitive systems. From the perspective of the Collective Predictive Coding (CPC) hypothesis -- a framework for understanding these faculties and the emergence of language at the group level -- we introduce a hypothetical idea: that language, with its embedded distributional semantics, serves as a collectively formed external representation. CPC generalises the concepts of individual memory and attention to the collective level. This offers a new perspective on how shared linguistic structures, which may embrace collective world models learned through next-word prediction, emerge from and shape group-level cognition.