The current status of attention in predictive models of cognition: a non-reductionist neurophilosophical analysis

• Grant number: 24/07686-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: February 01, 2025
• End date: January 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - Epistemology
• Principal Investigator: Osvaldo Frota Pessoa Junior
• Grantee: Maria Luiza Iennaco de Vasconcelos
• Supervisor: Steven Sequeira Gouveia
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Universidade do Porto (UP), Portugal
• Associated to the scholarship: 23/05458-7 - The hows and whys of attention: a neurophilosophical exploration based on active inference, BP.DR

Abstract

This research project aims to contribute to a preliminary investigation of the potential of Hierarchical Predictive Coding (HPC) and Active Inference models to encompass different domains of neurocognition and behavior. It promotes a non-reductionist neuro-philosophical analysis of how these models address attention - a boundary phenomenon that seems central both to action and perception. Initially, we will critically assess the contemporary status of these models, followed by a deeper exploration of whether they can explain the intricacies of attention as understood by various behavioral and brain sciences. Subsequently, guided by non-reductionist neuro-philosophical principles, we will explore the potentials and limitations of HPC and Active Inference in providing an ecological, embodied, and situated description of attention. This approach aims to encompass attention without undermining the knowledge and challenges posed by different perspectives and scales of investigation traditionally involved in its study. Finally, we will outline the main theoretical and methodological limitations of this endeavor, seeking to overcome them and clarify their status within the broader current landscape of pragmatic and interactionist/relational proposals in the philosophy of cognition.