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Divergent Perception: Framing Creative Cognition
“Divergent Perception: Framing Creative Cognition Through the Lens of Sensory Flexibility” “Savoir regarder est un moyen d’inventer.” Salvador Dali. Creativity is a cornerstone of human evolution and is typically defined as the multifaceted ability to produce novel and useful artifacts. Although much research has focused on divergent thinking, growing evidence underscores the importance of perceptual…
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Towards embodied intelligence
“Intelligent soft matter: towards embodied intelligence” Intelligent soft matter lies at the intersection of materials science, physics, and cognitive science, promising to change how we design and interact with materials. This transformative field aims to create materials with life-like capabilities, such as perception, learning, memory, and adaptive behavior. Unlike traditional materials, which typically perform static…
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Known and Unknown Biases
“Known and Unknown Biases: A Framework for Contextualising and Identifying Bias in Animal Behaviour Research“ (This article discusses the bias in animal behaviour research, but – as known to most readers, I hope – humanes too are members of the animal kingdom 🙂 Biases in animal behaviour research are inevitable consequences of our societal and…
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A Model of Creative Thinking
“Adaptive Decision-Making “Fast” and “Slow”: A Model of Creative Thinking” The late Daniel Kahneman introduced the concept of fast and slow thinking, representing two distinct cognitive systems involved in decision-making (DM). Fast thinking (System 1) operates intuitively and spontaneously. In contrast, slow thinking (System 2) is characterized by deliberation and analytical reasoning. Following Kahneman’s view, called the…
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Climate Change, A Geoscience Perspective
Climate Change, A Geoscience Perspective This open access book on climate change assesses past climatic change from a geoscience perspective and directly and effectively addresses common misconceptions on climate and climate change. A geoscience perspective on the multiple causes, rates, and consequences of climate change is essential context to assess modern climate change and our…
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The Idealized Mind
The Idealized Mind: From Model-Based Science to Cognitive Science.The open access edition of this book was made possible by generous funding and support from MIT Press Direct to Open A defense of scientific realism based on the role of idealization in the cognitive sciences. We study nature, including the mind and brain, by building scientific models.…
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Pathfinding: a neurodynamical account of intuition
Pathfinding: a neurodynamical account of intuition We examine the neurobiology of intuition, a term often inconsistently defined in scientific literature. While researchers generally agree that intuition represents “an experienced-based process resulting in a spontaneous tendency toward a hunch or hypothesis,” we establish a firmer neurobiological foundation by framing intuition evolutionarily as a pathfinding mechanism emerging…
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Horizon Scanning
EU policy lab released a set of “signal cards“. More information available at “In the mood for the future with Horizon Scanning Cards“ The Signal Cards come out of the ESPAS Horizon Scanning activity, in which we present and analyse emerging trends, technologies or generally signs of new which we identified through the horizon scanning…
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Plasticity: A network theory
“Plasticity in mental health: A network theory“ Plasticity is the ability to modify brain and behavior, ultimately promoting an amplification of the impact of the context on the individual’s mental health. Thus, plasticity is not beneficial per se but its value depends on contextual factors, such as the quality of the living environment. High plasticity is…
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Top-down and bottom-up neuroscience
“Top-down and bottom-up neuroscience: overcoming the clash of research cultures“ As scientists, we want solid answers, but we also want to answer questions that matter. Yet, the brain’s complexity forces trade-offs between these desiderata, bringing about two distinct research approaches in neuroscience that we describe as ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’. Bottom-up neuroscience The bottom-up research culture…
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Responsible Modeling
Responsible modelling and the ethics of mathematics for decision support Mathematical models are used to inform decisions across many sectors including climate change, finance, and epidemics. But models are not perfect representations of the real world – they are partial, uncertain and often biased. What, then, does responsible modelling look like? And how can we…
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Therapy That Isn’t Psychotherapy
I found this nice discours on an interesting topic, related with individual challlenges, AI and related tools appearing in this relation. Therapy That Isn’t Psychotherapy by Steven Reidbord Reducing the problem to a merely external one leads to therapy that resembles political advocacy; therapy that prizes agreement (“validation”) over all else; therapy that absolves the patient…
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De Wilde Ziel
De Wilde Ziel – Leven met de natuur als leraar: herontdek je wilde kant.Craig Foster, 2025 (origilele titel: “Amphibious Soul”) We zaten op een rots en ik vertelde Tom verhalen over mijn jeugd, over onze houten bungalow en over de nacht van de grote overstroming. Ik vertelde hem over het flesje met brieven en buitenlands…
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Complexity data science
“Complexity data science: A spin-off from digital twins “ Digital twins offer a new and exciting framework that has recently attracted significant interest in fields such as oncology, immunology, and cardiology. The basic idea of a digital twin is to combine simulation and learning to create a virtual model of a physical object. In this paper,…
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misguidedly radical ideas?
“Is bad philosophy holding back physics?“ Carlo Rovelli states:“My hunch is that it is at least partly because physicists are bad philosophers. Scientists’ opinions, whether they realize it or not (and whether they like it or not), are imbued with philosophy. And many of my colleagues — especially those who argue that philosophy is irrelevant…
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Resilience phenotypes derived from an active inference account of allostasis
“Resilience phenotypes derived from an active inference account of allostasis“:Within a theoretical framework of enactive allostasis, we explore active inference strategies for minimizing surprise to achieve resilience in dynamic environments. While individual differences and extrinsic protective factors traditionally account for variability in resilience trajectories following stressor exposure, the enactive model emphasizes the importance of the…
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Top-down influences
“Top-down influences on the perception of emotional stimuli” (also available as PDF) The ability to quickly and accurately perceive external emotional stimuli — events in the environment that evoke changes in feelings, physiology and behaviour — is vital for adaptive social interactions and effective decision making in everyday life. Contemporary theories of emotional perception emphasize the influence of top-down…
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Rhythmic Footstep (& Sound) Interactions on Creativity
“The Effects of Rhythmic Footstep and Sound Interactions on Creativity: A Design and Evaluation Study“ Existing research has explored how walking can stimulate creativity through the rhythm of footsteps. Innovators (e.g., Steve Jobs and Murakami Haruki)have mentioned that walking can stimulate their creativity when integrated with attention focus and footstep awareness Researchers have also studied…
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The power of mathematical models for better policy decisions
“Harnessing the power of mathematical models for better policy decisions” sets out four practical recommendations to help policymakers across a wide range of policy areas effectively capitalise on, and sidestep pitfalls of, using mathematical models for decision-making. Decision-makers are often keen to “follow the science” in highly-charged contexts such as climate policy, pandemic response, economic…
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