预测加工:走出两代认知科学的历史僵局

Predictive Processing:Breaking the Impasse of Two Generations of Cognitive Science

表征-计算观与具身行动观对认知的本质几乎做了截然相反的强调。近年来,预测加工理论的发展为统一两代认知科学提供了契机。预测加工是层级预测加工与主动预测加工这两大理论部件的合称,前一部件主要继承了第一代认知科学中的层级计算加工进路,后一部件则发扬了第二代认知科学中与行动有关的理论,这两大理论部件被视为同一个统一整合理论的两个不同方面。在当代,预测加工被认为有望成为未来认知科学的新范式。

Nowadays,quarrels and fights between two generations of cognitive science almost result in an inevitable impasse.For instance,a deep theoretical relation between J.J.Gibson and David Marr have been carved off,and of which two theories each other have been pushed toward the opposite side;which could be viewed as a portrayal of these overt states of affairs.The central tenet of the First-Generation Cognitive Science summarizes as:The Representational-Computational Approach;and the central tenet of the Second-Generation Cognitive Science:The Embodied Action Approach.What is the nature of“mind”at all?These two approaches conflict each other;and the either/or choice seems the only game in the town.In recent years,researchers attempt to integrate both strains of sources,hoping to provide a unified framework,thus of which could be viewed as prospectively breaking the impasse of two generations of cognitive science in the near future.It is called“Predictive Processing”.This approach apparently originates in hierarchal predictive coding of visual and auditory studies(since 1980 s),and thereby has been modified substantively by the neuroscientist Karl Friston,et al.,into a mode of action-oriented.Predictive Processing combines with two indispensable components:Hierarchical Predictive Processing and Active Predictive Processing.In rough,the Hierarchical Predictive Processing mainly inherits from hierarchical predictive coding theories of the First-Generation Cognitive Science(e.g.,Marr’s multi-level computational theory of vision,hierarchical neural networks,etc.);and the Active Predictive Processing somehow advocates various versions of theories of the Second-Generation Cognitive Science related with action(e.g.,Gibson’s affordances theory,enactive cognition,etc.).Both components could be viewed as dual aspect of a single unified theory.In Predictive Processing,the Free Energy Principle views adaptivity as the fundamental principle of the theory construction of neural and cognitive systems,and until self-organizing adaptive systems.The overall aim of Hierarchical Predictive Processing is to make the cognitive agency adaptable and sustainable as much as possible.Next,the optimization problem of adaptation turns into problems of surprising minimization or“prediction errors minimization”by means of Bayesian inference and Bayesian statistics.The basic working mechanism of Hierarchical Predictive Processing is the ascending prediction-descending prediction errors tradeoffs.The so-called“Active Inference”is the complementary component of Free Energy Principle,which is seen by Paul Cisek et al.,is confirmed with multiple affordances competition mechanism.The Active Predictive Processing shows perception-action tradeoffs,or“epistemic-pragmatic tradeoffs”.Both perception(epistemic value)and action(pragmatic value)ultimately serve for adaptivity(adaptive value).Perception-action cycle of Predictive Processing could be regarded as a second-order cycle based on first-order embodied reflex arc(in Deweyan sense);which could also be seen as an internalized closed loop within the corporal brain.Thus on the nature of cognition,contrasting with past two generations of cognitive science,Predictive Processing has made revolutionary breakthrough.Cognition as the systematic function of general adaptive system complies with the fundamental adaptivity principle.The conventional object-invariants analysis beneath paradigms of two generations of cognitive science,thus ought to give way to mind-world adaptivity analysis underlying the Predictive Processing paradigm.Philosophically speaking,Predictive Processing seems to be consistent with a process theory.In the end,on the basis of the currents and trends of Predictive Processing,we attempt to propose an integrated view.In our view,the pressing contemporary task of Predictive Processing is trying to integrate two generations of cognitive science-Representational-Computational Approach and Embodied Action Approach.