Our brains are not just memory machines! A Conversation with Dr. Laura Desirèe Di Paolo

Over the last decade, there has been a surge of interest in the
evidence and research-backing that support choices that educators
and leaders are making in schools. In an effort to prove “what
works” they reach for the Cognitive and so-called learning
sciences. Personally, I’ve always felt a bit uncomfortable about
how narrow these discussions are, focusing only on memory,
cognitive load, retrieval and other terms that will be familiar
to you if you’ve been involved in these discussions. As you’ll
hear in this conversation with Dr Laura Desirèe Di Paolo, our
brains are not simply memory machines! In fact, our
mind-brain-bodies are incredible production machines performing
active inference constantly in order to make sense of and act in
the world


Dr Laura Desirèe Di Paolo is a researcher, Philosopher of
Cognitive Science at the University of Sussex, UK and in the
Moritz-Stern-Institut at the University of Göttingen, Germany.
Her research is focused on the   material world in
education, development, and evolution and she is currently
working in Andy Clark’s team on XScape. Material Minds: Exploring
the Interactions between Predictive Brains, Cultural Artifacts,
and Embodied Visual Search -
https://www.sussex.ac.uk/research/centres/media-arts-humanities-institute/research/project/science/xscape 


Doctor of Philosophy, Philosophy of Life and Cognitive Sciences,
“Sapienza” - University of Rome (April, 14th 2014), cum Laude:
“Culture Under Construction. The Role of Learning in Reading
Others’ Mind and  Building a Cultural Niche”, supervisors:
Prof. Elena Gagliasso, Prof. Roberto Cordeschi, Prof. Enrico
Alleva; Commettee: Prof. Ines Crispini, Prof. Massimo Dell’Utri,
Prof. Francesco Ferretti.
(https://sussex.academia.edu/LauraDesir%C3%A9eDiPaolo/CurriculumVitae)


She has an academic background in social learning, the evolution
of culture in humans and animals and comparative psychology. She
is the co-editor of the book, Evolution of Primate Social
Cognition. Most recently, and the thing that brought Laura’s
brilliant work to my attention was her paper published in
January, ‘Active Inference Goes to School: The Importance of
Active Learning in the Age of Large Language Models’. January
2024 by Laura Desirèe Di Paolo, Avel Guénin--Carlut, Axel
Constant and Andy Clark -
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/377634490_Active_Inference_Goes_to_School_The_Importance_of_Active_Learning_in_the_Age_of_Large_Language_Models 


Other useful resources on Active Inference:


Andy Clark's book 'The Experience Machine: How Our Minds Predict
and Shape Reality' -
https://www.amazon.fr/Experience-Machine-Minds-Predict-Reality/dp/B0BFGK2KX4


Anil Seth's 2017 TED Talk 'Your brain hallucinates your conscious
reality' -
https://www.ted.com/talks/anil_seth_your_brain_hallucinates_your_conscious_reality?language=en


And if you're ready for something stronger, check out Karl
Friston's co-authored book 'Active Inference: The Free
Energy Principle in Mind, Brain, and Behavior' -
https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262045353/active-inference/


Subscribe to the Active Inference Institute channel on Youtube -
https://www.youtube.com/@ActiveInference/featured


Social Links


Instagram: @lauraddp - https://www.instagram.com/lauraddp/ 


LinkedIn: @lauradesireedipaolo -
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauradesireedipaolo/


X: @LauraDesiree_DP - https://twitter.com/LauraDesiree_DP