A Computational Cognitive Model of Reasoning in Tibetan Buddhist Monastic Debate

In Tibetan monasteries, the education system relies heavily on a very specific style of debating that is at once exhilarating and intellectually rigorous. Relatively little research has been done on the psychological and neural mechanisms of this debate, which may be an interesting method for education around the world. Hence the formation of a theory of this practice is important. Here we present a computational theory of Tibetan monastic debate implemented in the ACT-R cognitive architecture. We complement the ACT-R model with graph theory to represent knowledge and show how we can capture the dynamic flow of a debate in our model. Future research should validate the model in its native population and enrich it with more detailed strategies. Nevertheless, we think it provides an interesting example of how the interactive process of debating can be modelled.