"Cognition and Perception: Cognitive Penetration in Perceiving Objects and Emotions"

Albert Newen ()

Is our perceptual experience a veridical representation of the world or is it a product of our beliefs and past experiences? Cognitive penetration describes the influence of higher level cognitive factors on our perceptual experience and has been a debated topic in philosophy of mind and cognitive science with several waves for and against the influence of higher cognitive processes on our perceptual experience. In the first part of the talk, I  focus on visual perception, and discuss how it is affected by contextual expectations and memorized cognitive contents. Against the principle claim in the recent BBS-paper from J. Firestone and B. Scholl, who claim that cognition never influences perception, I argue that cognitive penetration can take place: I summarize recent empirical findings which demonstrate contextual and top-down influences on our perceptual experience. In the second part I apply this perspective to the perception of basic emotions. If we can demonstrate some cases of

 cognitive penetration this comes with the demand to offer an adjusted model of perceptual experiences. Some suggestions will be discussed.

Albert Newen is full professor for philosophy of mind at Ruhr-University Bochum. He is director of the Center for Mind, Brain and Cognitive Evolution. He has mainly published on self-consciousness, agency and understanding others and in the recent years on the philosophy of emotion and perception.