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Perceptual suboptimality: Bug or feature?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2019

Christopher Summerfield  and
Vickie Li Open the ORCID record for Vickie Li [Opens in a new window]
Christopher Summerfield
Affiliation:
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX2 6GG, United Kingdom. christopher.summerfield@psy.ox.ac.ukchui.li@psy.ox.ac.uk
Vickie Li
Affiliation:
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX2 6GG, United Kingdom. christopher.summerfield@psy.ox.ac.ukchui.li@psy.ox.ac.uk
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Abstract

Rahnev & Denison (R&D) argue that whether people are “optimal” or “suboptimal” is not a well-posed question. We agree. However, we argue that the critical question is why humans make suboptimal perceptual decisions in the first place. We suggest that perceptual distortions have a normative explanation – that they promote efficient coding and computation in biological information processing systems.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 41 , 2018 , e245
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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