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  1. Predicting the supernatural
    Published: [2019]

    Index theologicus der Universitätsbibliothek Tübingen
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    Source: Union catalogues
    Language: English
    Media type: Article (journal)
    Format: Online
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    Parent title: Enthalten in: Religion, brain & behavior; London [u.a.] : Routledge, 2011; 9(2019), 3, Seite 251-253; Online-Ressource

    Subjects: Das Übernatürliche; Theory of mind; Handlung; Erkennen; Religiöse Erfahrung; Interaktionalismus; Forschungsmethode;
  2. Agency detection in predictive minds
    a virtual reality study

    Since its inception, explaining the cognitive foundations governing sensory experiences of supernatural agents has been a central topic in the cognitive science of religion. Following recent developments in perceptual psychology, this pre-registered... more

    Index theologicus der Universitätsbibliothek Tübingen
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    Since its inception, explaining the cognitive foundations governing sensory experiences of supernatural agents has been a central topic in the cognitive science of religion. Following recent developments in perceptual psychology, this pre-registered study examines the effects of expectations and sensory reliability on agency detection. Participants were instructed to detect beings in a virtual forest. Results reveal that participants expecting a high probability of encountering an agent in the forest are much more likely to make false detections than participants expecting a low probability of such encounters. Furthermore, low sensory reliability increases the false detection rate compared to high sensory reliability, but this effect is much smaller than the effect of expectations. While previous accounts of agency detection have speculated that false detections of agents may give rise to or strengthen religious beliefs, our results suggest that the reverse direction of causality may also be true. Religious teachings may first produce expectations in believers, which in turn elicit false detections of agents. These experiences may subsequently work to confirm the teachings and narratives upon which the values of a given culture are built.

     

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    Source: Union catalogues
    Language: English
    Media type: Article (journal)
    Format: Online
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    Parent title: Enthalten in: Religion, brain & behavior; London [u.a.] : Routledge, 2011; 9(2019), 1, Seite 52-64; Online-Ressource

    Subjects: Agency Detection; HADD; cognitive science of religion; perception; predictive processing; religious teachings; virtual reality
  3. Predictive coding in agency detection
    Published: [2019]

    Agency detection is a central concept in the cognitive science of religion (CSR). Experimental studies, however, have so far failed to lend support to some of the most common predictions that follow from current theories on agency detection. In this... more

    Index theologicus der Universitätsbibliothek Tübingen
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    Agency detection is a central concept in the cognitive science of religion (CSR). Experimental studies, however, have so far failed to lend support to some of the most common predictions that follow from current theories on agency detection. In this article, I argue that predictive coding, a highly promising new framework for understanding perception and action, may solve pending theoretical inconsistencies in agency detection research, account for the puzzling experimental findings mentioned above, and provide hypotheses for future experimental testing. Predictive coding explains how the brain, unbeknownst to consciousness, engages in sophisticated Bayesian statistics in an effort to constantly predict the hidden causes of sensory input. My fundamental argument is that most false positives in agency detection can be seen as the result of top-down interference in a Bayesian system generating high prior probabilities in the face of unreliable stimuli, and that such a system can better account for the experimental evidence than previous accounts of a dedicated agency detection system. Finally, I argue that adopting predictive coding as a theoretical framework has radical implications for the effects of culture on the detection of supernatural agency and a range of other religious and spiritual perceptual phenomena.

     

    Export to reference management software   RIS file
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    Source: Union catalogues
    Language: English
    Media type: Article (journal)
    Format: Online
    Other identifier:
    Parent title: Enthalten in: Religion, brain & behavior; London [u.a.] : Routledge, 2011; 9(2019), 1, Seite 65-84; Online-Ressource

    Subjects: Agency detection; HADD; cognitive science of religion; epidemiology; perception; predictive coding; religion; supernatural agents
  4. The Bayesian observer and supernatural agents
    Published: [2019]

    Index theologicus der Universitätsbibliothek Tübingen
    No inter-library loan
    Export to reference management software   RIS file
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    Source: Union catalogues
    Language: English
    Media type: Article (journal)
    Format: Online
    Other identifier:
    Parent title: Enthalten in: Religion, brain & behavior; London [u.a.] : Routledge, 2011; 9(2019), 1, Seite 99-104; Online-Ressource

    Subjects: Das Übernatürliche; Handlung; Erkennen; Prädiktive Codierung; Bayes-Entscheidungstheorie;