It might be worth noting that Bayesian models of cognition have played a big role in the “rationality wars” lately. The idea is that if humans are basically rational, their behaviors will resemble the output of a Bayesian model. Since human behavior really does match the behavior of a Bayesian model in a lot of cases, people argue that humans really are rational. (There has been plenty of criticism of this approach, for instance that there are so many different Bayesian models in the world that one is sure to match the data, and thus the whole Bayesian approach to showing that humans are rational is unfalsifiable and overfitting.)
If you are interested in Bayesian models of cognition I recommend the work of Josh Tenenbaum and Tom Griffiths, among others.
That’s very helpful! I’ve heard a lot of scattered remarks about this perspective but never read up on it systematically. I will look into Tennenbaum and Griffiths. Any particular suggestions (papers, books)?
It might be worth noting that Bayesian models of cognition have played a big role in the “rationality wars” lately. The idea is that if humans are basically rational, their behaviors will resemble the output of a Bayesian model. Since human behavior really does match the behavior of a Bayesian model in a lot of cases, people argue that humans really are rational. (There has been plenty of criticism of this approach, for instance that there are so many different Bayesian models in the world that one is sure to match the data, and thus the whole Bayesian approach to showing that humans are rational is unfalsifiable and overfitting.)
If you are interested in Bayesian models of cognition I recommend the work of Josh Tenenbaum and Tom Griffiths, among others.
That’s very helpful! I’ve heard a lot of scattered remarks about this perspective but never read up on it systematically. I will look into Tennenbaum and Griffiths. Any particular suggestions (papers, books)?
The unfalsifiability remark is interesting, btw.
Hmm. If you want to know how Bayesian models of cognition work, this paper might be a good place to start, but I haven’t read it yet: “Bayesian Models of Cognition”, by Griffiths, Kemp, and Tenenbaum.
I’m taking a philosophy class right now on Bayesian models of cognition, and we’ve read a few papers critiquing Bayesian approaches: “Bayesian Fundamentalism or Enlightenment?”, by Jones and Love “Bayesian Just-So Stories in Psychology and Neuroscience”, by Bowers and Davis Iirc, it’s the latter that discusses the unfalsifiability of the Bayesian approach.