books — The Brains Blog

2. Do Experts Really Perceive the World Differently from Non-Experts?

People sometimes say things like the following: Cabernet Sauvignon tastes different to an expert wine taster than to a novice; or, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony sounds different to a seasoned conductor than it does to someone just hearing it for the first time. But does wine literally taste differently (or the …

1. What Is Perceptual Learning?

Kevin Connolly May 13, 2019 July 28, 2020 books / Kevin Connolly: Perceptual Learning / perception / Philosophy of Mind / Psychology

Last summer I tried to learn how to surf. I learned how to paddle to catch a wave, how to “pop up” to my feet on the surfboard from lying flat on my stomach, and how to turn on the board to surf down the wave once I caught it. …

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John Schwenkler May 13, 2019 May 19, 2019 books

We are grateful to Kevin Connolly for blogging this week on Perceptual Learning: The Flexibility of the Senses (Oxford University Press, 2019). To view all of Kevin’s posts on a single page, please click here.

4. Cognitive Structures, Predictive Coding and the Free Energy Principle

Majid D. Beni April 18, 2019 November 9, 2022 M.D. Beni: Cognitive Structural Realism / Philosophy of Science

As I explained in the previous post, CSR’s account of scientific representation is based on the neuroscientific account of the brain-world relationship. The neuroscientific account is presented in terms of the Predictive Processing Theory (PPT) and the Free Energy Principle (FEP) as being developed by Karl Friston and others. PPT …

3. Introducing Cognitive Structures

Majid D. Beni April 17, 2019 November 9, 2022 M.D. Beni: Cognitive Structural Realism / Neuroscience / Philosophy of Science

In the previous post, I have remarked that the existing forms of SR do not use the full capacity of their logical frameworks to account for a substantial relation between the structure of the scientific theories and reality. If we regiment the structure of scientific theories into formal frameworks that …

2. A Tale of Two Theories

Majid D. Beni April 16, 2019 November 9, 2022 M.D. Beni: Cognitive Structural Realism / Philosophy of Science

Previously I introduced the problem of scientific representation and remarked that Cognitive Structural Realism (CSR) aims to address it. CSR is (evidently) a version of SR, but it is also the inheritor of Ronald Giere and colleagues’ Cognitive Models of Science Approach (CMSA). In this post, I explain how CSR …

1. Cognitive Structural Realism

Majid D. Beni April 15, 2019 April 14, 2019 M.D. Beni: Cognitive Structural Realism / Philosophy of Science

I am grateful to John Schwenkler for giving me the opportunity to present my first book Cognitive Structural Realism, which aims to consolidate the ties between the philosophy of science and cognitive science. There already is some connection between these fields, given that the philosophy of cognitive science is a …