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How to Explain Behavior?

Gerd Gigerenzer1

  • 1Harding Center for Risk Literacy, Max Planck Institute for Human Development.

Topics in Cognitive Science
|November 7, 2019
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Cognitive psychology uses three frameworks: tools-to-theories, as-if theories, and adaptive toolboxes. These formal models offer new ways to understand mental processes and behavior, moving beyond general concepts.

Keywords:
Adaptive toolboxAs-if theoriesBlack-box theoriesCognitive processesComputationExplanationHeuristicsTools-to-theories

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Philosophy of Mind

Background:

  • Cognitive psychology explains behavior using mental concepts, but these are unobservable, creating challenges for theoretical frameworks.
  • The cognitive revolution spurred the development of new explanatory models for mental processes.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To distinguish and describe three post-cognitive revolution frameworks for explaining behavior.
  • To highlight the common preference for formal models across these frameworks.

Main Methods:

  • Distinguishing three frameworks: tools-to-theories, as-if theories, and adaptive toolboxes.
  • Analyzing how each framework models behavior in risk or uncertainty and whether it includes cognitive processes.
  • Identifying the shared preference for formal models over verbal concepts or dichotomies.

Main Results:

  • Tools-to-theories: Data analysis tools become theories of mind.
  • As-if theories: Optimal solutions (e.g., Bayesian statistics) serve as theories of mind, not psychological processes.
  • Adaptive toolbox: Formal models of heuristics describe mental processes under uncertainty.

Conclusions:

  • The choice of framework influences research questions, data generation, and the modeling of cognitive processes.
  • These frameworks offer distinct approaches to understanding behavior, with potential for integration.
  • A shared emphasis on formal modeling distinguishes these contemporary approaches in cognitive psychology.