Models for Surrogative Stimulation.
Occasionally, in science, models are used to stimulate other systems rather than to perform surrogative reasoning. More specifically, in what is called surrogative stimulation, a model is used to stimulate a focal system in order to learn how it would respond to the system represented by the model....
| Published in: | Erkenntnis Vol. 91; no. 3; pp. 1345 - 1371 |
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| Format: | Article |
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Springer Nature
Mar2026
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=191693406&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 191693406 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 01650106 5KZ jtl: Erkenntnis issn: 01650106 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Mar2026 vid: 91 iid: 3 pid: 237 pub: Springer Nature artinfo: ui: 191693406 10.1007/s10670-025-00951-7 ppf: 1345 ppct: 26 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 1.3MB tig: atl: Models for Surrogative Stimulation. aug: au: Datteri, Edoardo affil: https://ror.org/01ynf4891 Department of Human Sciences for Education, RobotiCSS Lab (Laboratory of Robotics for the Cognitive and Social Sciences), University of Milano-Bicocca, Building U6, Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo 1, 20126, Milan, Italy su: Scientific models Model validation Research methodology Social robots Robotics Similarity (Psychology) sug: subj: Scientific models Model validation Research methodology Social robots Robotics Similarity (Psychology) ab: Occasionally, in science, models are used to stimulate other systems rather than to perform surrogative reasoning. More specifically, in what is called surrogative stimulation, a model is used to stimulate a focal system in order to learn how it would respond to the system represented by the model. This article proposes a methodological reconstruction of the surrogative stimulation strategy and addresses the so-called model evaluation problem in relation to it. It is argued that in order to be adequate for surrogative stimulation, the model must provide stimuli that are similar to those provided by the target system, and a tentative definition of 'stimulus similarity' is offered. It is also argued that whether the model and the target system are similar in this sense is a question that depends not only on the context and interests of the modeller, but more crucially on facts about how the focal system works. Representative examples are taken from ethorobotics and social robotics, but the analysis made here is not intended to be applicable only to these areas of research. While much remains to be learned about this emerging use of models, the analysis undertaken here aims to offer a preliminary methodological reconstruction that may be useful for future studies. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Erkenntnis is a copyright of Springer, 2026. All Rights Reserved. item: Erkenntnis holder: Springer Nature dt: @attributes: year: 2026 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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