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Updated: Jul 7, 2026

A Naturalistic Setup for Presenting Real People and Live Actions in Experimental Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience Studies
Published on: August 4, 2023
Programs, models, theories, and reality
1Department of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom rid@ecs.soton.ac.uk www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~rid.
Abstract:
The question "Are 'biorobots' good models of biological behaviour?" can be seen as a specific instance of a more general question about the relation between computer programs and models, between models and theories, and between theories and reality. This commentary develops a personal view of these relations, from an antirealism perspective. Programs, models, theories and reality are separate and distinct entities which may converge in particular cases but should never be confused.
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