16:30 - 18:00
Parallel sessions 6
16:30 - 18:00
Room: HSZ - N3
Chair/s:
Roland Pfister
Theories on how the human mind represents behavioral rules and norms distinguish between explicit, verbal formats and implicit, procedural formats. Here we ask whether the latter representational format draws on fundamental cognitive mechanisms of regularity detection and statistical learning. The symposium thus connects basic, low-level approaches from cognitive psychology to the concepts of rules and rule-guided behavior. The speakers will cover cognitive fundamentals of rule representations, principles of regularity detection and rule discovery in streams of incoming stimulation, procedural learning of rules through mental simulation, and challenges derived from using negated rather than affirmative rules to steer human behavior. The contributions cover a wide range of methodologies, from movement trajectory analysis to peripheral physiology (EMG) and neuroscientific approaches (EEG, fMRI) to elucidate the question of how much rule representations draw on implicit, procedural learning.
 
Submission 457
Motivational Versus Cognitive Approaches to Rules and Behavior
SymposiumTalk-01
Presented by: Roland Pfister
Roland Pfister
Trier University, Germany
Research on behavioral rules and norms has typically adopted a motivational perspective to determine when human agents decide to follow or violate what they ought to do. How rules are represented in the human cognitive system, however, is surprisingly elusive. I will present key findings for a cognitive perspective on rules and norms including key challenges for grounding this perspective in basic approaches to human cognition. In addition to filling a critical gap in the current theoretical landscape, these findings also challenge common narratives that are prevalent in fields such as behavioral economics or public policy by documenting the mind’s striking affinity to any rule or norm.