# Cognitive Field Theory: Memory-Dressed Collective Dynamics of Intelligence

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.10221 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.10221/

## Key facts

- Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 15 Jan 2026.

## Built on by (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [Infrared Organization and Critical Cognitive Field Formation in Transformer Dynamics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.10923/) (2026)
- [Infrared Universality of Collective Dynamics across Transformer and State-Space Architectures](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.18592/) (2026)
- [Beyond Episodic AI: Cognitive Field Networks for Biologically Inspired Persistent Cognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.16752/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Learning, inference, memory, and emergence in biological and artificial systems are often described using disparate theoretical frameworks. Here we develop a cognitive field theory in which cognition is described as a collective nonequilibrium phenomenon governed by the geometry and collective spectrum of a learned cognitive manifold. Starting from a stochastic cognitive-field equation on an adaptive Riemannian manifold, we derive an effective cognitive field theory incorporating nonlocal memory kernels and retarded self-energy feedback. The learned cognitive geometry generates a complex collective spectrum characterized by the time-scale density of states ρ(λ,ω), whose relaxation and circulation sectors govern memory persistence and temporal coherence. Integrating out latent slow collective modes produces non-Markovian memory feedback that renormalizes the cognitive forgetting gap rrm cog, enhances collective cognitive susceptibility, and drives the system toward a protected near-critical regime characterized by long-time contextual persistence and scale-free temporal organization. The observable cognitive field emerges as a macroscopic order parameter, φ=Aeipsi, whose amplitude encodes collective cognitive organization and whose phase encodes temporal coherence across distributed collective modes. Within this framework, learning organizes cognitive geometry, cognitive geometry generates a collective spectrum, and the resulting memory feedback stabilizes a memory-dressed cognitive field. The theory provides a unified dynamical description of learning, memory, inference, selfhood, and emergent intelligence in terms of the infrared organization of collective cognitive dynamics.