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Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience pp 1–3Cite as

Cognition, Bayesian Models of

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Synonyms

Probabilistic models of cognition; Rational models of cognition

Definition

Bayesian models provide a principled way to deal with uncertainty. In cognitive tasks the uncertainty is mainly in how to represent the observed data, as there is usually not enough data to uniquely determine the representation. Bayesian models of cognition implement a general method for dealing with representational uncertainty which can be applied to explain human performance in various cognitive tasks.

Detailed Description

Cognitive tasks are full of uncertainty. From deciding what to call a new object, to determining what causes what in the environment, to learning a language, there is generally not enough information to uniquely determine the answer. Bayesian models of cognition provide a principled way to deal with this uncertainty, using probability theory to evaluate hypotheses and produce responses. Below, I briefly review three key areas in which Bayesian models of cognition have been applied:...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK

    Adam N. Sanborn

Authors
  1. Adam N. Sanborn
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Adam N. Sanborn .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Atlanta, Georgia, USA

    Dieter Jaeger

  2. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Florida International University, Miami, Florida, USA

    Ranu Jung

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© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Sanborn, A.N. (2014). Cognition, Bayesian Models of. In: Jaeger, D., Jung, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_447-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_447-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-7320-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Biomedicine and Life SciencesReference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences

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