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In praise of secular Bayesianism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 August 2011

Evan Heit
Affiliation:
School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts, University of Californiaat Merced, Merced, CA 95343. [email protected]@ucmerced.eduhttp://faculty.ucmerced.edu/eheit
Shanna Erickson
Affiliation:
School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts, University of Californiaat Merced, Merced, CA 95343. [email protected]@ucmerced.eduhttp://faculty.ucmerced.edu/eheit

Abstract

It is timely to assess Bayesian models, but Bayesianism is not a religion. Bayesian modeling is typically used as a tool to explain human data. Bayesian models are sometimes equivalent to other models, but have the advantage of explicitly integrating prior hypotheses with new observations. Any lack of representational or neural assumptions may be an advantage rather than a disadvantage.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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