Predictive coding in agency detection
Agency detection is a central concept in the cognitive science of religion (CSR). Experimental studies, however, have so far failed to lend support to some of the most common predictions that follow from current theories on agency detection. In this article, I argue that predictive coding, a highly...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
[2019]
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| In: |
Religion, brain & behavior
Year: 2019, Volume: 9, Issue: 1, Pages: 65-84 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
The Supernatural
/ Plot
/ Recognizing
/ Prädiktive Codierung
/ Kognitive Religionswissenschaft
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| RelBib Classification: | AB Philosophy of religion; criticism of religion; atheism AE Psychology of religion AG Religious life; material religion |
| Further subjects: | B
predictive coding
B HADD B Religion B Perception B supernatural agents B Agency Detection B cognitive science of religion B Epidemiology |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Resolving-System) |
| Summary: | Agency detection is a central concept in the cognitive science of religion (CSR). Experimental studies, however, have so far failed to lend support to some of the most common predictions that follow from current theories on agency detection. In this article, I argue that predictive coding, a highly promising new framework for understanding perception and action, may solve pending theoretical inconsistencies in agency detection research, account for the puzzling experimental findings mentioned above, and provide hypotheses for future experimental testing. Predictive coding explains how the brain, unbeknownst to consciousness, engages in sophisticated Bayesian statistics in an effort to constantly predict the hidden causes of sensory input. My fundamental argument is that most false positives in agency detection can be seen as the result of top-down interference in a Bayesian system generating high prior probabilities in the face of unreliable stimuli, and that such a system can better account for the experimental evidence than previous accounts of a dedicated agency detection system. Finally, I argue that adopting predictive coding as a theoretical framework has radical implications for the effects of culture on the detection of supernatural agency and a range of other religious and spiritual perceptual phenomena. |
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| ISSN: | 2153-5981 |
| Reference: | Kommentar in "Agency detection is unnecessary in the explanation of religious belief (2019)"
Kommentar in "Explaining agency detection within a domain-specific, culturally attuned model (2019)" Kommentar in "Evolved priors for agent detection (2019)" Kommentar in "Prediction and feedback may constrain but do not stop anthropomorphism (2019)" Kommentar in "Predictive coding in the psychological sciences of religion (2019)" Kommentar in "Predictive processing and the problem of (massive) modularity (2019)" |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Religion, brain & behavior
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/2153599X.2017.1387170 |