A Few Steps Toward a Science of Mental Life

28 ABSTRACT — Under what conditions can a true " science of mental life " arise from psychological investigations? Can psy- chology formulate scientifi c laws of a general nature, compa- rable in soundness to the laws of physics? I argue that the search for such laws must return to the forefront of psycho- logical and developmental research, an enterprise that requires extensive collaboration between psychologists, neu- roscientists, physicists, and mathematicians. Psychological laws may arise from at least 3 sources: the anchoring of thought processes in the biophysics of the brain, the compu- tational constraints on possible mental algorithms, and the internalization of physical or statistical laws into our brains during evolution or development. I consider as an illustration the domain of numerical cognition, where a few solid psycho- physical and decision-making laws have been established and related in part to their evolutionary precursors and neural bases. From this platform, I tentatively outline a few promis- ing research directions in the domains of infant development, reading acquisition, executive control of multiple tasks, access to conscious report, and the spontaneous fl ow of con-

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