Bayesian cognitive science, also known as computational cognitive science, is an approach to
cognitive science concerned with the
rational analysis of cognition through the use of
Bayesian inference and
cognitive model A cognitive model is an approximation of one or more cognitive processes in humans or other animals for the purposes of comprehension and prediction. There are many types of cognitive models, and they can range from box-and-arrow diagrams to a set ...
ing. The term "computational" refers to the computational level of analysis as put forth by
David Marr.
This work often consists of testing the hypothesis that cognitive systems behave like rational Bayesian agents in particular types of tasks. Past work has applied this idea to
categorization, language,
motor control,
sequence learning,
reinforcement learning
Reinforcement learning (RL) is an area of machine learning concerned with how intelligent agents ought to take actions in an environment in order to maximize the notion of cumulative reward. Reinforcement learning is one of three basic machine ...
and
theory of mind
In psychology, theory of mind refers to the capacity to understand other people by ascribing mental states to them (that is, surmising what is happening in their mind). This includes the knowledge that others' mental states may be different fro ...
.
At other times, Bayesian rationality is ''assumed'', and the goal is to infer the knowledge that agents have, and the mental representations that they use.
It is important to contrast this with the ordinary use of
Bayesian inference in cognitive science, which is independent of rational modeling (see e.g
Michael Lee's work.
See also
*
Active inference
*
Bayesian approaches to brain function Bayesian approaches to brain function investigate the capacity of the nervous system to operate in situations of uncertainty in a fashion that is close to the optimal prescribed by Bayesian statistics. This term is used in behavioural sciences and n ...
*
Bayesian programming
Bayesian programming is a formalism and a methodology for having a technique to specify probabilistic models and solve problems when less than the necessary information is available.
Edwin T. Jaynes proposed that probability could be consider ...
*
Rational analysis
Selected readings
Bayesian Theory of Mind : modeling human reasoning about beliefs, desires, goals, and social relations''Chris L. Baker, (2006)''
Optimal Predictions in Everyday Cognition''T. L. Griffiths, and J. B. Tenenbaum (2006), Psychological Science 17(9), 767-773''
''M.Oaksford, & N. Chater, (Eds.), (1998), Oxford University Press''
References
Cognitive science
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