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The neuroscience explanation for this is "Predictive coding". These talks are fascinating. related: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvAbPtbjxhw&t=1135s https:

The neuroscience explanation for this is "Predictive coding". These talks are fascinating. related: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvAbPtbjxhw&t=1135s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvAbPtbjxhw&t=1135s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0yVuoATjzs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0yVuoATjzs

escherplex 8y ago
Right. So there is a received cognitive operating system which generates an interactive model of 'reality' shaped by historic experience, a facet of this system involves 'hierarchical predictive coding.' When parsing percepts, this subsystem front-loads what aspects of a new experience of interest to accept and what to ignore based on shaping from past experience. A simple example: promise a child a quarter if the correct hand is chosen. Place quarter in right hand then fold fingers up, occluding quarter. Appear to grab coin with left hand, quickly close both hands, and present both fists to child then ask 'which hand holds the quarter?'. Based on past experience it would appear that just a transfer of an object from one hand to another took place so child selects the empty left hand. Then immediately rerun the same test with the new experiential history encoded and find the child (usually with a smirk) chooses the right hand (assuming you didn't pocket the coin to further confuse the child).
bobbiechen 8y ago
Cool videos! A nice written introduction to the topic of predictive coding is Scott Alexander's book review of "Surfing Uncertainty" by Andy Clark: https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/09/05/book-review-surfing-uncertainty/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/09/05/book-review-surfing-un...
- skosch 8y ago
  I have found that book to be an impressive example of poor scientific writing – one long, convoluted, intentionally obtuse sentence after another, as if the author was constantly trying to make the reader feel like an idiot. I have found some more technical articles (e.g. [0]) very useful, but if anyone knows of a comprehensive introduction that takes more of an experimental psychology angle, similar to Surfing Uncertainty but less frustrating, I definitely want to know about it. [0] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022249615000759 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002224961...

escherplex 8y ago

Right. So there is a received cognitive operating system which generates an interactive model of 'reality' shaped by historic experience, a facet of this system involves 'hierarchical predictive coding.' When parsing percepts, this subsystem front-loads what aspects of a new experience of interest to accept and what to ignore based on shaping from past experience. A simple example: promise a child a quarter if the correct hand is chosen. Place quarter in right hand then fold fingers up, occluding quarter. Appear to grab coin with left hand, quickly close both hands, and present both fists to child then ask 'which hand holds the quarter?'. Based on past experience it would appear that just a transfer of an object from one hand to another took place so child selects the empty left hand. Then immediately rerun the same test with the new experiential history encoded and find the child (usually with a smirk) chooses the right hand (assuming you didn't pocket the coin to further confuse the child).

bobbiechen 8y ago

Cool videos! A nice written introduction to the topic of predictive coding is Scott Alexander's book review of "Surfing Uncertainty" by Andy Clark: https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/09/05/book-review-surfing-uncertainty/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/09/05/book-review-surfing-un...

skosch 8y ago
I have found that book to be an impressive example of poor scientific writing – one long, convoluted, intentionally obtuse sentence after another, as if the author was constantly trying to make the reader feel like an idiot. I have found some more technical articles (e.g. [0]) very useful, but if anyone knows of a comprehensive introduction that takes more of an experimental psychology angle, similar to Surfing Uncertainty but less frustrating, I definitely want to know about it. [0] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022249615000759 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002224961...