"Psychologists are simply, on an absolute scale, dullards... They seem to feel, many of them, that all we need to do is consolidate our scientific gains. Their self-confidence astonishes me. For these gains seem to me puny, and scientific psychology seems to me ill-founded. At any time the whole psychological applecart might be upset. Let… Continue reading Beneath The Replication Crisis
Category: Cognitivism
Misrepresenting Representation
"Many of the conceptual confusions fundamental to modern cognitivist theory had already been identified and widely recognised before the 'cognitive revolution' of the 1960s. Yet, whenever such confusions were pointed out, they are either fleetingly acknowledged, only to be quickly forgotten, or, more usually, emphatically denied. And, as I have found out to my own… Continue reading Misrepresenting Representation
Brain Size and Social Intelligence
There is a double-standard in psychology that claims that humans have unique socio-cognitive skills, and a prominent explanation for this is the Social Intelligence or Social Brain Hypothesis: that human brains are outsized due to the enormous complexity of our social relations. I have noted in previous posts that the skills psychologists assume are human-specific… Continue reading Brain Size and Social Intelligence
Psychology as Ideology
Much as the sociobiologists of the 1980's provided the 'neoliberal' capitalists of their era with the naturalisation of selfishness, cognitive psychology's conception of the mind makes it a suitable perspective for capitalist ideology: each person is isolated within their own head and must use a complex system of internal representations in order to mirror or… Continue reading Psychology as Ideology
Beyond Cognitive Hypocrisy
One thing that make's Frans de Waal's Chimpanzee Politics such an absorbing read, even today, is that it is unafraid to explicitly described chimpanzee behaviour in terms humans would recognise. There's times when this approach less useful than others (comparing Richard Nixon and a chimpanzee's behaviour strictly in terms of their reaction to losing power… Continue reading Beyond Cognitive Hypocrisy
Vicious Intellectualism
The computer metaphor, the idea that human behaviour, and more specifically the brain, can be usefully thought of as a computer, has hung around psychology's neck for 50 years or more. A post at Aeon by Roger Epstein takes the metaphor to task, and I'd recommend it, though it's some are finding it harder to… Continue reading Vicious Intellectualism
