Predictive coding and thought


Change log
Abstract

Predictive processing has recently been advanced as a global cognitive architecture for the brain. I argue that its commitments concerning the nature and format of cognitive representation are inadequate to account for two basic characteristics of conceptual thought: first, its generality--the fact that we can think and flexibly reason about phenomena at any level of spatial and temporal scale and abstraction; second, its rich compositionality--the specific way in which concepts productively combine to yield our thoughts. I consider two strategies for avoiding these objections and I argue that both confront formidable challenges.

Description
Keywords
Predictive processing, Predictive coding, Free-energy principle, Probabilistic graphical model, Hierarchical probabilistic generative model, Concepts, Thought, Higher cognition, Bayesian brain
Journal Title
Synthese
Conference Name
Journal ISSN
0039-7857
1573-0964
Volume Title
197
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Sponsorship
AHRC (1653062)