Category: Complexity
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Exploration and Exploitation & Coping Strategy
“Transition Dynamics Between Exploration and Exploitation Predicts Individual Differences in Coping Strategy” Adaptive decision-making requires balancing exploitation of known rewarding options with exploration of uncertain alternatives, a dilemma also known as the exploration-exploitation tradeoff. While this framework has been widely studied in reinforcement learning research, its relevance to coping, defined as the cognitive and behavioral…
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Was I fooled or wasn’t I?
“What Is the Name of This Book?-The Riddle of Dracula and Other Logical Puzzles, by Raymond M. Smullyan” My introduction to logic was at the age of six. It happened this way: On April 1, 1925, I was sick in bed with grippe, or f lu, or something. In the morning my brother Emile (ten…
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Intuitive insight: Fast associative processes drive sound creative thinking
“Intuitive insight: Fast associative processes drive sound creative thinking” Convergent thinking, the ability to find a single optimal solution to a well-defined problem, is considered a core component of creativity, and is often assumed to rely on controlled, deliberative processes. We tested this assumption using the Compound Remote Associates (CRA) test, where participants have to…
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Switching, fast and slow
“Switching, fast and slow: Deciphering the dynamics of memory search, its brain connectivity patterns, and its role in creativity “ Creative ideas emerge from the process of searching and combining concepts in memory, involving both associative and controlled mechanisms. How these processes unfold during memory search and relate to creativity remains unclear. We explored the neurocognitive…
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The interoceptive origin of reinforcement learning
“The interoceptive origin of reinforcement learning” Rewards play a crucial role in sculpting all motivated behavior. Traditionally, research on reinforcement learning has centered on how rewards guide learning and decision-making. Here, we examine the origins of rewards themselves. Specifically, we discuss that the critical signal sustaining reinforcement for food is generated internally and subliminally during…
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Paradox of Predictability
“The paradox of predictability provides a bridge between micro- and macroevolution” The relationship between the evolutionary dynamics observed in contemporary populations (microevolution) and evolution on timescales of millions of years (macroevolution) has been a topic of considerable debate. Historically, this debate centers on inconsistencies between microevolutionary processes and macroevolutionary patterns. Here, we characterize a striking…
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The Universe Learning Itself
“The Universe Learning Itself: On the Evolution of Dynamics from theBig Bang to Machine Intelligence” We develop a unified, dynamical-systems narrative of the universe that traces a continuous chain of structure formation from the Big Bang to contemporary human societies and their artificial learning systems. Rather than treating cosmology, astrophysics, geophysics, biology, cognition, and machine…
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Decoding the architecture of living systems
“Decoding the architecture of living systems“, by Manlio De Domenico The possibility that evolutionary forces — together with a few fundamental factors such as thermodynamic constraints, specific computational features enabling information processing, and ecological processes — might constrain the logic of living systems is tantalizing. However, it is often overlooked that any practical implementation of…
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Statistics is not measurement
“Statistics is not measurement: The inbuilt semantics of psychometric scales and language-based models obscures crucial epistemic differences” This article provides a comprehensive critique of psychology’s overreliance on statistical modelling at the expense of epistemologically grounded measurement processes. It highlights that statistics deals with structural relations in data regardless of what these data represent, whereas measurement…
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Why collective behavioursself-organize to criticality
“Why collective behaviours self-organize to criticality: a primer on information-theoretic and thermodynamic utility measures” Collective behaviours are frequently observed to self‑organize to criticality. Existing proposals to explain these phenomena are fragmented across disciplines and only partially answer the question. This primer compares the underlying, intrinsic, utilities that may explain the self‑organization of collective behaviours near…
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Social networks affect redistribution decisions and polarization
“Social networks affect redistribution decisions and polarization” “Whom you observe in your daily life alters your willingness to tax the rich” Recent research suggests that the visibility of extreme wealth within a person’s social circle drives their support for economic redistribution but simultaneously fosters political polarization and personal dissatisfaction. A study published in PNAS Nexus combines computational…
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Nature on the balance sheet …
“Putting nature on the balance sheet: how to account for the ecological costs of our actions” Economists should consider forests and wetlands as well as factories and farms. A book review of “On Natural Capital: The Value of the World Around Us“, Partha Dasgupta (2025) On Natural Capital recaps the roaring economic advances of the past 75…
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Stubborn Goals: the adaptive value
“The adaptive value of stubborn goals” Humans exhibit a striking tendency to persist with chosen goals. This strong attachment to goals can often appear irrational – a perspective captured by terms such as perseverance or sunk-cost biases. In this review, we explore how goal commitment could stem from several adaptive mechanisms, including those that optimise…
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Harmony in the brain
“Harmony in the brain: A narrative review on the shared neural substrates of emotion regulation and creativity” The contribution of creativity in overall well-being through regulating emotions has sparkled research interest in employing artistic interventions recently for the improvement of mental health. Although the behavioural links between emotion regulation and creativity have been established, the neural networks reflecting…
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End GDP mania
“End GDP mania: how the world should really measure prosperity” Last week’s United Nations General Assembly, held in New York City, generated no shortage of headlines. But one notable policy initiative from the world body was not discussed by world leaders when it should have been. UN secretary-general António Guterres has put together a high-level…
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