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Investigating the concept of representation in the neural and psychological sciences

The concept of representation is commonly treated as indispensable to research on brains, behavior, and cognition. Nevertheless, systematic evidence about the ways the concept is applied remains scarce. We present the results of an experiment aimed at elucidating what researchers mean by “representa...

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Autores principales: Favela, Luis H., Machery, Edouard
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10284684/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37359883
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1165622
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author Favela, Luis H.
Machery, Edouard
author_facet Favela, Luis H.
Machery, Edouard
author_sort Favela, Luis H.
collection PubMed
description The concept of representation is commonly treated as indispensable to research on brains, behavior, and cognition. Nevertheless, systematic evidence about the ways the concept is applied remains scarce. We present the results of an experiment aimed at elucidating what researchers mean by “representation.” Participants were an international group of psychologists, neuroscientists, and philosophers (N = 736). Applying elicitation methodology, participants responded to a survey with experimental scenarios aimed at invoking applications of “representation” and five other ways of describing how the brain responds to stimuli. While we find little disciplinary variation in the application of “representation” and other expressions (e.g., “about” and “carry information”), the results suggest that researchers exhibit uncertainty about what sorts of brain activity involve representations or not; they also prefer non-representational, causal characterizations of the brain’s response to stimuli. Potential consequences of these findings are explored, such as reforming or eliminating the concept of representation from use.
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spelling pubmed-102846842023-06-23 Investigating the concept of representation in the neural and psychological sciences Favela, Luis H. Machery, Edouard Front Psychol Psychology The concept of representation is commonly treated as indispensable to research on brains, behavior, and cognition. Nevertheless, systematic evidence about the ways the concept is applied remains scarce. We present the results of an experiment aimed at elucidating what researchers mean by “representation.” Participants were an international group of psychologists, neuroscientists, and philosophers (N = 736). Applying elicitation methodology, participants responded to a survey with experimental scenarios aimed at invoking applications of “representation” and five other ways of describing how the brain responds to stimuli. While we find little disciplinary variation in the application of “representation” and other expressions (e.g., “about” and “carry information”), the results suggest that researchers exhibit uncertainty about what sorts of brain activity involve representations or not; they also prefer non-representational, causal characterizations of the brain’s response to stimuli. Potential consequences of these findings are explored, such as reforming or eliminating the concept of representation from use. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-06-07 /pmc/articles/PMC10284684/ /pubmed/37359883 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1165622 Text en Copyright © 2023 Favela and Machery. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Favela, Luis H.
Machery, Edouard
Investigating the concept of representation in the neural and psychological sciences
title Investigating the concept of representation in the neural and psychological sciences
title_full Investigating the concept of representation in the neural and psychological sciences
title_fullStr Investigating the concept of representation in the neural and psychological sciences
title_full_unstemmed Investigating the concept of representation in the neural and psychological sciences
title_short Investigating the concept of representation in the neural and psychological sciences
title_sort investigating the concept of representation in the neural and psychological sciences
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10284684/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37359883
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1165622
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