内容简介

Inside your head there is an amazing labor saving device; more effective than the latest high-tech computer. Your brain frees you from the everyday tasks of moving about in the world around you, allowing you to concentrate on the things that are important to you; making friends and influencing people. However, the 'you' that is released into this social world is also a construction of your brain. It is your brain that enables you to share your mental life with the people around you.

Making Up the Mind is the first accessible account of experimental studies showing how the brain creates our mental world. Using evidence from brain imaging, psychological experiments, and patient studies, Chris Frith, one of the world's leading neuroscientists, explores the relationship between the mind and the brain.

作者简介

From Wikipedia:

Professor Chris Frith FRS, FBA (born March 16, 1942, United Kingdom - ) is an Emeritus Professor at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at University College London and a Niels Bohr Visiting Professor at the University of Aarhus, Denmark. His primary interest is in the applications of functional brain imaging to the study of higher cognitive functions in ...

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精彩摘录

贝叶斯定理还有一点对于我们理解脑如何运作甚至更为重要。它有两个关键构件：p(A\X)和p(X\A)。p(A\X)告诉我们，给定新证据（X），我们需要改变多少关于这个世界的信念（A）。p(X\A)告诉我们，给定我们关于这个世界的信念（A），我们期望得到什么样的证据（X）。……我的脑会重复这个过程，每循环一次，预测误差就变小一次。

——引自第123页

　　……在我们还没有获得任何有关他人的信息之前，就对他们进行猜测，这是对人们的过早判断，是偏见。在当下，偏见可能是一个贬义词，但是事实上，它对于我们脑的功能来说是至关重要的。[1]偏见鼓励我们去开始我们的猜测——猜测结果的精确度有多高这并不重要，只要我们能根据错误的反应调整下一步的猜测。　　我们天生有偏见的倾向。我们所有的社会互动以偏见开始。

——引自第159页