Abstract:

The superiority effect of social prediction is a well established phenomenon in social cognition literature, whereby predictable stimuli are better recognized than unpredictable stimuli. The neural mechanism for the superiority effect of social prediction is an important topic in the area of cognitive neuroscience and psychology. Predictive coding model suggests that predictable neural signals are attenuated. However, the predictive coding model has been challenged by the fact that prediction sometimes seems to enhance rather than reduce neural signals. Therefore, study 1 and 2 will investigate the role of unconscious and conscious social attention in the predictive coding model, thereby embedding them in the model. In study 3, we will explore a translation mechanism, and ultimately construct a predictive parsimony frame which consisted of the translation mechanism and the predictive coding model. Exploring the neural mechanism for the superiority effect of social prediction may contribute to improving the predictive coding model and broadening the research field of social prediction.

Key words: the superiority effect of social prediction, translation mechanism, predictive coding model, social attention, ERP, fMRI