July 13, 2013

Ecological Psychology and Occam's Razor

Occam's Razor (OR) isn't usually applied between competing theories, but there are known examples of this also; some astrophysics mathematical equation was found by an American and was simpler (and accurate enough) than one by a Russian and so the former was/is used. Apologies for the lack of reference and specificity in the example. OR is also not an irrefutable principle of logic, or so Wikipedia says.

Ecological Psychology (EP), with both less assumptions and simpler rules guiding scientific discovery should be supported by the principle when comparing to computational theories. Even within EP, a goal is to try and find the most simple heuristic or rule-governed process for a given behaviour, maintaining the principle.

It should be said that OR has obvious issues, the foremost perhaps being that it does not guarantee truth (considered using "truthiness" here.. pass for now..) or correctness. It just says that the simpler explanation is more often the likely case.

Accepting that computationalism doesn't really provide an explanation of the human condition, or at least that it does a worse job than EP, then we can be (at the very least, temporarily) justified to rely on EP based on this logical principle instead of computationalism.


No comments:

Post a Comment

Labels

a. charles catania (1) abstract (1) accident (1) account (1) actualisation (2) actualization (1) addicted to love (1) addiction (1) affordance (5) affordances (15) alternative environments (2) alternative objects (2) an ecological approach to psychology (1) anthony chemero (1) anthrocentrism (1) anti (2) anti-representationalism (3) anti-representationalist (2) applied psychology (1) arguments against representationalism (1) atheism (1) atheist (1) autocatakinetic (1) baby (1) Bargh (4) behaviour (3) bias (1) Big Bang (1) brain in a vat (1) british psychological association (1) canons (1) cartesian dualism (1) chance (1) chaos theory (1) Chemero (1) christian (2) christianity (1) clinical psychology (4) cognition (7) cognitive (3) cognitive psychology (10) cognitive psychology in crisis (5) coincidence (1) computationalism (1) computer (1) computer-gaming (1) conceptual (2) conflict resolution (1) conflicts (1) contrast between computation and ecological strategy (1) created depictions (1) crib (1) critical (1) critical realism (4) cusp catastrophe (1) Daniel (1) daniel fishman (1) Dave (1) definition (3) dependence (2) depicted environments (2) depicted objects (2) depiction (1) depictions (5) dichotomization (1) dichotomized perception (1) dichotomizing (1) direct (2) direct perception (6) Doyen (4) dualism (1) dynamic (3) dynamic systems (2) dynamic systems theory (1) Earp (1) ecological psychology (18) Ed (2) elderly (2) embodied (4) embodied cognition (15) embodied emotion (1) embodied psychology (1) embodiment (1) emotion (1) emotions (1) energy propagation (1) english (1) ensammast (1) entropy (1) entropy debt (1) environment (1) epistemology (5) eric (1) eric charles (8) ethical problems (1) ethics (1) exemplification (1) exist (3) existence (3) experience (2) explanations of (1) field potentials (1) Foddy (1) gaming (1) gay (2) gender neutral pronoun (1) Gibson (3) Gigerenzer (1) Golonka (3) hard sciences (4) harry heft (1) heterogeneity (1) hie (2) hier (2) hier's (1) hierself (1) history of psychology (1) homogeneity (1) homosexuality (1) hovind (1) how multiple integrations make human intelligence (1) human system (1) humanity (1) i (1) I do apologise but (1) I'm (2) illusions (1) individual (1) infant (1) interception (1) introduction (1) issue editor's foreword (1) John Locke (1) joshua w clegg (1) kent (1) league of legends (1) lieberman (1) Linda Smith (1) link (2) logic (1) logical abstraction (1) love (1) lyrics (1) lyrik (1) master thesis (7) matthew (1) mental disorders (1) metafor (1) metaforer (1) method (1) Milgram (1) Milgram misunderstood (1) mobile (1) modeling (1) more than concepts (1) Müller-Lyer illusion (1) natural science of behaviour (1) norman henry anderson (1) Nussbaum (1) obediance to authority (1) objective (3) observation (1) observe (1) occam's razor (1) of (2) online gaming (1) ontology (6) overmedication (1) peace (1) perception (9) personality (1) perspective (5) philosophy (7) philosophy of mind (4) philosophy of psychology (15) philosophy of science (6) positivism (4) potential (1) pragmatic case studies (1) prediction (1) priming (3) programmed depictions (1) psychiatry (1) psychology (8) psychology of philosophy (1) radical embodied cognitive science (6) random (1) reading list (1) realisation (1) realism (2) rECS (4) relationship (3) religion (1) replication (1) replications (1) representation (3) representationalism (7) representationalist (2) representations (3) reproducibility (1) research (2) retraction (2) review of general psychology (8) Savulescu (1) science (5) screen (1) screen-presented (1) self-development (1) self-organisation (1) self-realization (1) Simons (1) simulation (1) social (3) social construction (3) social constructionism (2) soft sciences (4) sports (1) stability (1) stanley messer (1) statistics (1) stereotype (2) stereotypes (1) study (1) subjective (5) Sunday musings (1) sverige (1) system (1) task (1) task analysis (1) taxonomy (1) teaching example (1) text (1) the empirical study of epistemology and phenomenology (1) the fragmented object (1) the self (2) thermodynamic psychology (3) Thermodynamics (1) thesis experiment (1) three laws of information integration (1) thunderf00t (1) thunderfoot (1) traditional psychology (1) unconscious (1) understanding (1) unified psychology (7) universe (1) unless (2) utility (1) virtual (4) virtual affordances (6) virtual agent (2) virtual agents (1) virtual environment (4) virtual environments (1) virtual interception task (2) Wilson (3) world view (1) Wudarczyk (1) Yong (2) you're (2)