creators_name: Dennett, Daniel
editors_name: Pick, Van den Broek
type: bookchapter
datestamp: 1998-04-14
lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:53:47
metadata_visibility: show
title: Filling in versus finding out: A ubiquitous confusion in cognitive science
ispublished: pub
subjects: phil-mind
full_text_status: public
abstract: One of the things you learn if you read books and articles in (or about) cognitive science is that the brain does a lot of "filling in"--not filling in, but "filling in"--in scare quotes. My claim today will be that this way of talking is not a safe bit of shorthand, or an innocent bit of temporizing, but a source of deep confusion and error. The phenomena described in terms of "filling in" are real, surprising, and theoretically important, but it is a mistake to conceive of them as instances of something being filled in, for that vivid phrase always suggests too much--sometimes a little too much, but often a lot too much. Here are some examples (my boldface throughout).
date: 1992
date_type: published
publication: Cognition, Conception, and Methodological Issues
publisher: American Psychological Association
refereed: TRUE
citation:   Dennett, Daniel  (1992) Filling in versus finding out: A ubiquitous confusion in cognitive science.  [Book Chapter]     
document_url: http://cogprints.org/267/1/fillin.htm