Biological cognition involves many different mechanisms, working on different principles, that reinforce and counter-balance each other.

Judge against scientific understanding as of September 2019. TRUE: mainstream neuroscience and cognitive science describe cognition as relying on many distinct mechanisms that work on different principles and interact by reinforcing and counter-balancing one another. Examples include multiple memory systems, dual-process or parallel systems, excitatory and inhibitory balance, and competing or cooperating neural systems. MOSTLY TRUE: the multiplicity of mechanisms is well established, but 'reinforce and counter-balance each other' is stated more broadly than the evidence shows. MIXED: the literature supports multiple mechanisms but describes their interaction quite differently, or is split. MOSTLY FALSE: the claim overstates a contested or narrow view as established. FALSE: the established scientific consensus holds that biological cognition rests on a single uniform mechanism or principle.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 Interactive memory systems in the human brain Nature (indexed by RePEc/IDEAS) · 2 February 2001

   “Interactive memory systems in the human brain”

2. E2 Dual-Process Theories of Higher Cognition: Advancing the Debate Perspectives on Psychological Science (Jonathan St. B. T. Evans and Keith E. Stanovich) · 2013

   “We argue that the dual-processing distinction is supported by much recent evidence in cognitive science.”

3. E3 Dual-Process Theories of Higher Cognition: Advancing the Debate Perspectives on Psychological Science (Jonathan St. B. T. Evans and Keith E. Stanovich) · 2013

   “Our preferred theoretical approach is one in which rapid autonomous processes (Type 1) are assumed to yield default responses”

4. E4 Dual-Process Theories of Higher Cognition: Advancing the Debate Perspectives on Psychological Science (Jonathan St. B. T. Evans and Keith E. Stanovich) · 2013

   “literatures that provide parallels, even providing evidence for mutual inhibition when one kind of processing—and associated neural structures—takes over from the other.”

5. E5 Dual-Process Theories of Higher Cognition: Advancing the Debate Perspectives on Psychological Science (Jonathan St. B. T. Evans and Keith E. Stanovich) · 2013

   “Dual-process and dual-system theories in both cognitive and social psychology have been subjected to a number of recently published criticisms.”

A 2001 Nature paper titled "Interactive memory systems in the human brain" (E1) points to distinct memory systems that interact, though only its title is quoted. A 2013 review by Evans and Stanovich (E2, E3, E4) says dual-process distinctions are supported by much recent evidence. It also cites literatures showing mutual inhibition between kinds of processing and their neural structures. That supports the idea of multiple mechanisms that counter-balance each other. The same review notes published criticisms of dual-process theories (E5), and the evidence gives only partial support for the broad claim that the mechanisms "reinforce and counter-balance each other". So the claim is mostly true rather than fully established.