Toward an Embodied, Embedded Predictive Processing Account.
Frontiers in psychology January 1, 2021 Elmarie Venter 35 citations
Predictive processing theories of the brain have split into two opposing camps: cognitivist predictive processing, which restricts cognition to neural processes, and free energy enactivism, which extends free energy minimization to all self-organizing systems and offers no unique explanation for complex human cognition. This paper rejects both extremes and proposes Embodied, Embedded Predictive Processing (EEPP), a compromise that distinguishes prediction error minimization from the free energy principle. EEPP gives the body a constitutive role in cognition: it regulates cognitive activity, distributes cognitive load by minimizing prediction error, and constrains processed information. The embodied agent, as a model of its econiche, minimizes free energy through bidirectional agent–environment interaction, making EEPP a promising alternative.