8 February, Julia HAAS [WEBINAR]

February 8, 2019
h 8-10 - Greenwhich Mean Time 
(check your local time here)

Julia HAAS

Revisiting Binocular Rivalry

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​Abstract

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Hohwy et al.’s (2008) ‘epistemological’ explanation of binocular rivalry is taken as a classic illustration of predictive coding’s ubiquity and explanatory power. I revisit the account and show that it cannot explain a core feature of binocular rivalry, namely, perceptual dominance in rewarded conditions. A more recent version of Bayesian model averaging, known as Variational Bayes, can account for the role of reward in rivalry by recasting it as a form of optimism bias. However, I argue that if we accept this modified account, we must revise our understanding of perception as a neutral, informational or ‘theoretical’ process in the mind.