Pub Date : 2025-07-28DOI: 10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101579
Kathleen Melhuish , Naneh Apkarian , Estrella Johnson
Mathematics classroom observation protocols are a prevalent way that researchers analyze classrooms for purposes such as identifying quality instruction and evaluating the impact of instructional interventions. These protocols serve to operationalize what counts as quality instruction. However, we have found both in our own scholarship and in the mathematics education field at large, the scholar point of view is emphasized with minimal critical reflection. We suggest that this preserves dominant ideologies that can serve to uphold whiteness in the classroom and allows for racial, gender, and cultural bias in tool use. We make a call for attention to QuantCrit tenants in the design and use of classroom observation protocols.
{"title":"Whose experiences are we capturing? A critical reflection on classroom observation measures","authors":"Kathleen Melhuish , Naneh Apkarian , Estrella Johnson","doi":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101579","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101579","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Mathematics classroom observation protocols are a prevalent way that researchers analyze classrooms for purposes such as identifying quality instruction and evaluating the impact of instructional interventions. These protocols serve to operationalize what counts as quality instruction. However, we have found both in our own scholarship and in the mathematics education field at large, the scholar point of view is emphasized with minimal critical reflection. We suggest that this preserves dominant ideologies that can serve to uphold whiteness in the classroom and allows for racial, gender, and cultural bias in tool use. We make a call for attention to QuantCrit tenants in the design and use of classroom observation protocols.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56191,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences","volume":"65 ","pages":"Article 101579"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2025-07-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144721618","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-24DOI: 10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101576
Vahid Taebnia
This review critically examines some of the recent philosophical perspectives on the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) companionship in alleviating loneliness. By engaging with six recent studies on the subject, it identifies two primary frameworks for conceptualizing AI companionship: an anthropocentric perspective, which evaluates AI’s ability to provide meaningful companionship mainly from a human point of view, and a constructivist approach, which gives primacy to the dynamic evolution of human–AI interactions and the potential for AI to create new forms of meaningful relationships. Through an analysis of some of the critical elements to meaningful companionship — such as intersubjectivity, sentimentality, shared human experience, and selfless love — this review concludes by offering reflections on existing scholarship on AI companionship and potential future directions for this field of inquiry.
{"title":"Addressing loneliness through AI: philosophical perspectives","authors":"Vahid Taebnia","doi":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101576","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101576","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This review critically examines some of the recent philosophical perspectives on the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) companionship in alleviating loneliness. By engaging with six recent studies on the subject, it identifies two primary frameworks for conceptualizing AI companionship: an anthropocentric perspective, which evaluates AI’s ability to provide meaningful companionship mainly from a human point of view, and a constructivist approach, which gives primacy to the dynamic evolution of human–AI interactions and the potential for AI to create new forms of meaningful relationships. Through an analysis of some of the critical elements to meaningful companionship — such as intersubjectivity, sentimentality, shared human experience, and selfless love — this review concludes by offering reflections on existing scholarship on AI companionship and potential future directions for this field of inquiry.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56191,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences","volume":"65 ","pages":"Article 101576"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144696904","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-24DOI: 10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101575
Richard Kennaway
How do organisms pursue goals? This article compares two very different frameworks that address this question, perceptual control theory (PCT) and the free energy principle (FEP).
According to PCT, organisms have goals (reference values for certain variables) and sensors (of their actual values) and act to bring the sensed values towards the references. That is, they are organised as assemblages of control systems. FEP views the behaviour of organisms as resulting from minimising a quantity called free energy.
PCT makes specific proposals for the organisation of multiple control systems and for other aspects of goal-seeking behaviour, such as adaptation, learning, and memory. FEP claims that these phenomena and others emerge from the single principle of free energy minimisation.
PCT sharply distinguishes action from prediction: they are different sorts of things. FEP treats action as a particular case of prediction: organisms act not by commanding but by predicting their future states.
{"title":"Perceptual control theory and the free energy principle: a comparison","authors":"Richard Kennaway","doi":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101575","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101575","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>How do organisms pursue goals? This article compares two very different frameworks that address this question, perceptual control theory (PCT) and the free energy principle (FEP).</div><div>According to PCT, organisms have goals (reference values for certain variables) and sensors (of their actual values) and act to bring the sensed values towards the references. That is, they are organised as assemblages of control systems. FEP views the behaviour of organisms as resulting from minimising a quantity called free energy.</div><div>PCT makes specific proposals for the organisation of multiple control systems and for other aspects of goal-seeking behaviour, such as adaptation, learning, and memory. FEP claims that these phenomena and others emerge from the single principle of free energy minimisation.</div><div>PCT sharply distinguishes action from prediction: they are different sorts of things. FEP treats action as a particular case of prediction: organisms act not by commanding but by predicting their future states.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56191,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences","volume":"65 ","pages":"Article 101575"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144696902","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-24DOI: 10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101581
Maverick E Smith , Jeffrey M Zacks , Zachariah M Reagh
The human mind constructs and updates models of events during comprehension. Event models are multidimensional, multitimescale, and structured. They enable prediction, shape memory formation, and facilitate action control. Event models may be updated incrementally by replacing feature information as it changes or globally by constructing an entirely new model; there is evidence for both mechanisms. Default mode network components, particularly medial prefrontal cortex, are thought to implement key event model functions, utilizing a temporally graded architecture in which regions with longer timescales perform more integration and abstraction. Two signatures of event model representations are phasic changes in overall activity at event boundaries and shifts in neural patterns at those boundaries. Current theories propose multiple control structures for event model updating, including monitoring the quality of event model–driven predictions. Event model updating during comprehension has important consequences not only for processing information in the moment but also for forming long-term memories.
{"title":"Events in the stream of behavior","authors":"Maverick E Smith , Jeffrey M Zacks , Zachariah M Reagh","doi":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101581","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101581","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The human mind constructs and updates models of events during comprehension. Event models are multidimensional, multitimescale, and structured. They enable prediction, shape memory formation, and facilitate action control. Event models may be updated incrementally by replacing feature information as it changes or globally by constructing an entirely new model; there is evidence for both mechanisms. Default mode network components, particularly medial prefrontal cortex, are thought to implement key event model functions, utilizing a temporally graded architecture in which regions with longer timescales perform more integration and abstraction. Two signatures of event model representations are phasic changes in overall activity at event boundaries and shifts in neural patterns at those boundaries. Current theories propose multiple control structures for event model updating, including monitoring the quality of event model–driven predictions. Event model updating during comprehension has important consequences not only for processing information in the moment but also for forming long-term memories.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56191,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences","volume":"65 ","pages":"Article 101581"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144696903","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-23DOI: 10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101574
Marcus Mund , Linda Maurer , Bertus F. Jeronimus , Susanne Buecker
Loneliness arises when individuals perceive their social relationships as inadequate. Extensive research has linked loneliness to physical and mental health risks, as well as increased mortality. However, despite these well-documented consequences, several key aspects of loneliness remain surprisingly underexplored — largely due to the predominant reliance on between-person research designs. While these designs are invaluable for identifying interindividual differences in loneliness, they do not provide insight into its subjective nature or the specific circumstances under which loneliness arises and persists over time. To fully grasp the complexity of loneliness, we argue that research must move beyond traditional between-person approaches and more routinely integrate within-person perspectives. This shift will provide deeper insight into how loneliness unfolds within individuals, ultimately advancing our understanding of its dynamic nature.
{"title":"When between-person differences are not enough: The need for within-person perspectives on loneliness","authors":"Marcus Mund , Linda Maurer , Bertus F. Jeronimus , Susanne Buecker","doi":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101574","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101574","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Loneliness arises when individuals perceive their social relationships as inadequate. Extensive research has linked loneliness to physical and mental health risks, as well as increased mortality. However, despite these well-documented consequences, several key aspects of loneliness remain surprisingly underexplored — largely due to the predominant reliance on between-person research designs. While these designs are invaluable for identifying interindividual differences in loneliness, they do not provide insight into its subjective nature or the specific circumstances under which loneliness arises and persists over time. To fully grasp the complexity of loneliness, we argue that research must move beyond traditional between-person approaches and more routinely integrate within-person perspectives. This shift will provide deeper insight into how loneliness unfolds within individuals, ultimately advancing our understanding of its dynamic nature.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56191,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences","volume":"65 ","pages":"Article 101574"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144687149","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-16DOI: 10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101573
Elin Runnqvist , Christian A Kell
Research traditions have studied aspects of control from their respective perspectives, separating motor and cognitive actions. This becomes particularly evident in the field of language and speech motor control in which linguistic language production models leave sensorimotor aspects underspecified and speech production models largely ignore the linguistic processing that provides a speech motor goal in the first place. It would be surprising if the brain organized control of speaking in such a dichotomous way. Here, we review and discuss conceptual proposals and empirical evidence supporting a hierarchical control architecture that allows for an embedded control of both abstract language as well as concrete speech. We propose a control scheme that could explain inner speech, speech planning, speech production, and speech perception in a single model. We propose concrete study designs that may disprove our proposal.
{"title":"A continuum of predictive control between motor and mental actions: language production as a test case","authors":"Elin Runnqvist , Christian A Kell","doi":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101573","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101573","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Research traditions have studied aspects of control from their respective perspectives, separating motor and cognitive actions. This becomes particularly evident in the field of language and speech motor control in which linguistic language production models leave sensorimotor aspects underspecified and speech production models largely ignore the linguistic processing that provides a speech motor goal in the first place. It would be surprising if the brain organized control of speaking in such a dichotomous way. Here, we review and discuss conceptual proposals and empirical evidence supporting a hierarchical control architecture that allows for an embedded control of both abstract language as well as concrete speech. We propose a control scheme that could explain inner speech, speech planning, speech production, and speech perception in a single model. We propose concrete study designs that may disprove our proposal.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56191,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences","volume":"65 ","pages":"Article 101573"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144633430","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-15DOI: 10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101571
Sarah Wright
This review focuses on recent developments in work loneliness research, specifically examining studies published between 2023 and early 2025. In this essay, I focus on the conceptualisation of work loneliness, distinguishing it as a unique experience embedded within the context of work relationships and environments. I also highlight ongoing measurement issues, including the conflation of loneliness with social isolation, which complicates both theoretical clarity and the creation of targeted interventions. I specifically examine recent studies that explore loneliness within remote and hybrid work environments. The essay explores emerging evidence on leadership behaviour, with recent research suggesting that empathic, empowering, and supportive leadership is associated with reduced work loneliness. Finally, I identify promising but preliminary research into relational substitutes, such as digital relational agents and identification with one's work role, as potential buffers against loneliness when interpersonal relationships are lacking.
{"title":"The future of work loneliness research","authors":"Sarah Wright","doi":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101571","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101571","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This review focuses on recent developments in work loneliness research, specifically examining studies published between 2023 and early 2025. In this essay, I focus on the conceptualisation of work loneliness, distinguishing it as a unique experience embedded within the context of work relationships and environments. I also highlight ongoing measurement issues, including the conflation of loneliness with social isolation, which complicates both theoretical clarity and the creation of targeted interventions. I specifically examine recent studies that explore loneliness within remote and hybrid work environments. The essay explores emerging evidence on leadership behaviour, with recent research suggesting that empathic, empowering, and supportive leadership is associated with reduced work loneliness. Finally, I identify promising but preliminary research into relational substitutes, such as digital relational agents and identification with one's work role, as potential buffers against loneliness when interpersonal relationships are lacking.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56191,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences","volume":"65 ","pages":"Article 101571"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144631947","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Biological perception is achieved via brain–world interactions, predominantly implemented within closed-loop systems that integrate sensory inputs and the motor actions used to acquire them. In contrast, current developments of artificial perception primarily exploit open-loop configurations. Lacking this dynamic interplay, artificial intelligence (AI) remains limited in interpreting real-world data. Here, we review the fundamental gaps between biological perception, as revealed through neuroscience research, and artificial perception, as currently implemented in AI systems. We conclude with two major recommendations for advancing AI: adopting event-based processing and integrating closed-loop architectures.
{"title":"Closed-loop perception: gaps between artificial intelligence and biology","authors":"Ehud Ahissar , Eldad Assa , Neomi Mizrachi , Guy Nelinger , Tchiya Ben-Joseph , Inbar Saraf-Sinik , Shachar Geiger , Alexander Rivkind","doi":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101572","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101572","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Biological perception is achieved via brain–world interactions, predominantly implemented within closed-loop systems that integrate sensory inputs and the motor actions used to acquire them. In contrast, current developments of artificial perception primarily exploit open-loop configurations. Lacking this dynamic interplay, artificial intelligence (AI) remains limited in interpreting real-world data. Here, we review the fundamental gaps between biological perception, as revealed through neuroscience research, and artificial perception, as currently implemented in AI systems. We conclude with two major recommendations for advancing AI: adopting event-based processing and integrating closed-loop architectures.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56191,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences","volume":"65 ","pages":"Article 101572"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144605070","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-09DOI: 10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101570
Gregg Sparkman , Tabea Hoffmann
Social norms will be key in coordinating populations to mitigate climate change. But currently, people presume others are divided or tepid about key mitigation solutions, leading norms to fall short of motivating global action from individuals and institutions. What would it take to utilize norms effectively to address climate change? We review three budding lines of research that provide an answer. First, norm perceptions of entire populations can be changed through the intentional use of societal systems of norm transmission: our leaders, institutions, media, and social media. Second, norm interventions need to use potent, conformity-inducing content by focusing on malleable clusters of norms with identifiable norm referents, and steer attention to norm information where and when it best reflects proclimate sentiments. Third, we must use norm interventions to target change-accelerating outcomes, specifically to increase climate dialogue, promote relational organizing within one’s social network, and seed climate advocacy and protests.
{"title":"What will it take to mitigate climate change? Maximizing norm transmission and potency for change-accelerating outcomes","authors":"Gregg Sparkman , Tabea Hoffmann","doi":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101570","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101570","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Social norms will be key in coordinating populations to mitigate climate change. But currently, people presume others are divided or tepid about key mitigation solutions, leading norms to fall short of motivating global action from individuals and institutions. What would it take to utilize norms effectively to address climate change? We review three budding lines of research that provide an answer. First, norm perceptions of entire populations can be changed through the intentional use of societal systems of norm transmission: our leaders, institutions, media, and social media. Second, norm interventions need to use potent, conformity-inducing content by focusing on malleable clusters of norms with identifiable norm referents, and steer attention to norm information where and when it best reflects proclimate sentiments. Third, we must use norm interventions to target change-accelerating outcomes, specifically to increase climate dialogue, promote relational organizing within one’s social network, and seed climate advocacy and protests.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56191,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences","volume":"65 ","pages":"Article 101570"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144579247","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-05DOI: 10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101568
Bouke de Vries, Sarah A Rezaieh
Loneliness has received little attention in philosophy compared to other academic disciplines, including within the subfield of political philosophy on which this article focuses. However, growing political concern — exemplified by initiatives like the UK’s End Loneliness campaign and Japan’s appointment of a Minister for Loneliness — along with the pioneering work of Kimberly Brownlee, has increased interest from political philosophers over the past decade. This review examines recent discussions at the intersection of political philosophy and loneliness, structured around three key themes: (i) the political challenges of loneliness, including its alleged links to extremism, misogyny, and social inequality; (ii) the extent of state responsibility in addressing loneliness; and (iii) the moral (un)desirability of various policy interventions aimed at mitigating loneliness, such as social policies, urban planning reforms, and digital solutions.
{"title":"Political philosophy and loneliness","authors":"Bouke de Vries, Sarah A Rezaieh","doi":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101568","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101568","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Loneliness has received little attention in philosophy compared to other academic disciplines, including within the subfield of political philosophy on which this article focuses. However, growing political concern — exemplified by initiatives like the UK’s <em>End Loneliness</em> campaign and Japan’s appointment of a Minister for Loneliness — along with the pioneering work of Kimberly Brownlee, has increased interest from political philosophers over the past decade. This review examines recent discussions at the intersection of political philosophy and loneliness, structured around three key themes: (i) the political challenges of loneliness, including its alleged links to extremism, misogyny, and social inequality; (ii) the extent of state responsibility in addressing loneliness; and (iii) the moral (un)desirability of various policy interventions aimed at mitigating loneliness, such as social policies, urban planning reforms, and digital solutions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56191,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences","volume":"65 ","pages":"Article 101568"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144563694","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}