Behavioral and Brain Sciences

Table of Contents - June 2011 - Volume 34, Issue 03  

Open Peer Commentary

Rational constructivism, statistical inference, and core cognition

Fei Xua1

a1 Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720. fei_xu@berkeley.edu http://babylab.berkeley.edu/

Abstract

I make two points in this commentary on Carey (2009). First, it may be too soon to conclude that core cognition is innate. Recent advances in computational cognitive science and developmental psychology suggest possible mechanisms for developing inductive biases. Second, there is another possible answer to Fodor's challenge – if concepts are merely mental tokens, then cognitive scientists should spend their time on developing a theory of belief fixation instead.

(Online publication May 19 2011)

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