Predictive processing is an ambitious and increasingly influential framework in mind sciences and philosophy of mind that aims to provide a unifying explanation of all mental phenomena. It is based on the idea that the brain has an internal model of its environment that it optimizes by gathering evidence (e.g., sensory inputs) of its environment. Thus far, researchers have mostly ignored the temporal aspects of the framework; namely, that it takes time to optimize the model and that the model must account for our experiences and cognition of temporal features of the world. The objective of the proposed project is to correct this shortcoming and, in general, highlight the relevance of addressing temporal issues when considering explanation in predictive processing. Given the importance of the framework and the lack of systematic investigation on this topic, the project is anticipated to have significant research impact within the scientific community and to promote scientific renewal.

2022

2023