Cognitive Determinism

The strong, hardcore version of Cognitive Realism. It asserts that our cognitive structures don't just influence but fundamentally determine and limit the boundaries of our possible experience. What we call "reality" is an inescapable projection of our neural wiring; we cannot perceive, conceive of, or even imagine anything outside the categories our brains provide. It's not that we see the world through a tinted window; it's that we are the window, and everything we see is a property of the glass.

Example: "Trying to imagine a truly new color is the prison of Cognitive Determinism. My brain's visual system is built from combinations of red, green, and blue photoreceptors. Every color I can experience or dream of is just a mix of those. A 'new' color outside that RGB triangle is cognitively impossible for me. My reality isn't just shaped by my senses; its entire color palette is predetermined by them."

by Abzunammu February 2, 2026

Cognitive Metasciences

A broader, more theoretical category encompassing fields that take the entire project of cognitive science—the interdisciplinary study of mind and intelligence—as their object of critique and analysis. This includes questioning the computational metaphor of the mind, the limits of artificial intelligence as a model for human thought, and the cultural assumptions built into our models of intelligence. It's cognitive science reflecting on its own foundational metaphors.

Cognitive Metasciences Example: Critiquing the dominant paradigm in AI research for assuming that intelligence is purely information processing, while ignoring the role of embodied experience, emotion, and social interaction, is an exercise in Cognitive Metascience. It asks if the field is solving the right puzzle, or just the one that fits its preferred tools.

by Dumu The Void February 4, 2026

Cognitive Paradigm Theory

The study of the fundamental models that have dominated the science of the mind, each defining what the mind is and how it should be studied. Major paradigms include: the computational/representational (mind as software), connectionist (mind as neural networks), embodied/enactive (mind as an activity of the whole body in an environment), and ecological (mind as a perception-action system). Switching paradigms changes what you think thoughts are made of.

Example: The shift from seeing the mind as a symbol-manipulating computer (the classic AI paradigm) to seeing it as a predictive processing machine constantly generating and updating a model of the world is a Cognitive Paradigm Theory revolution. It changes the goal of psychology from programming rules to understanding Bayesian belief updating.

by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal February 4, 2026

Cognitive Metaparadigm Theory

A high-level theory about the nature of cognitive paradigms themselves. It classifies and analyzes the different possible kinds of models we can have for the mind—are they primarily computational, biological, phenomenological, or social? This meta-theory helps explain why cognitive scientists from different sub-fields often talk past each other; they're not just using different models, they're operating in different meta-frameworks about what a model of the mind should even look like.

Cognitive Metaparadigm Theory Example: The fierce debate between proponents of Classical Computationalism (the mind as a symbol processor) and Embodied Dynamical Systems (the mind as a body interacting with an environment) is a clash not just of paradigms, but of Cognitive Metaparadigms. One sees the mind as essentially like a computer program; the other sees it as essentially like a weather system or a walking gait.

by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal February 4, 2026

Cognitive Picking

The inherent, unconscious operation of the human brain to selectively attend to, remember, and process information that confirms existing beliefs, expectations, or emotional states (Confirmation Bias), while filtering out dissonant data. This is the biological and psychological root of all cherry-picking; our wetware is wired to be a prejudiced curator. We don't just pick facts; our perception itself is a picky editor.

Example: After buying a red Honda, you suddenly see red Hondas everywhere. This is Cognitive Picking. Your brain has tuned its perceptual filter to notice confirming instances (other red Hondas) while ignoring the thousands of other cars you pass. Your reality becomes a curated exhibit of your own recent choices.

by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal February 4, 2026

Cognitive Metabiases

Biases about biases themselves. These are systematic errors in how we perceive, judge, and attempt to correct for cognitive biases in ourselves and others. A key example is the Bias Blind Spot—the meta-bias of believing you are less biased than other people. Cognitive metabiases are why "knowing about biases" doesn't cure them; it often just gives you more sophisticated tools for self-deception.

Example: A CEO reads about groupthink and then vigilantly points it out in every team meeting, seeing dissent as healthy. However, they are blind to their own Cognitive Metabiases: their overconfidence bias in their ability to detect bias, and their reactance to any criticism, which they now dismiss as just "the team avoiding groupthink."

by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal February 4, 2026

Cognitive Biases of Cognitive Biases

The specific, recursive set of errors we make when trying to identify, label, and correct cognitive biases. This includes: Bias Attribution Bias (attributing others' actions to their biases, but your own to circumstances), Fallacy Fallacy applied to biases (dismissing someone's point because you spotted a bias, even if their point is valid), and the "I'm Educated on Biases" Bias (assuming knowledge of bias lists makes you immune to them).

Cognitive Biases of Cognitive Biases Example: You accuse a friend of confirmation bias for only reading news that aligns with her politics. She retorts that your accusation is itself driven by fundamental attribution error (a Cognitive Bias). You then dismiss this as a tu quoque fallacy (a Fallacy Fallacy). This infinite regress of bias accusations is the hall of mirrors created by Cognitive Biases of Cognitive Biases.

by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal February 4, 2026