Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Artículo Open Access |
| Published: |
Wiley
2026
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cogs.70191 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
Table of Contents:
- Harnessing Uncertainty: Improvisation as a Model for Rapid Behavioral Expansion Julien Laroche Alessandro D'Ausilio Cognitive Science Abstract While traditional sciences treat uncertainty as an obstacle to be minimized, this paper proposes an epistemic shift: viewing uncertainty as a resource to leverage. To enact this shift, we suggest adopting improvisation—where novel behaviors are instantaneously assembled to meet unpredictable constraints—as a model for real‐time adaptation and behavioral expansion. In this practice, uncertainty is not merely managed but deliberately injected to disrupt the determinism of habitual routines. By unveiling a wider space of potential paths, increasing uncertainty fosters behavioral exploration, discovery, and collective decision‐making amidst dissent. This perspective resonates across scales: in neuroscience, neural uncertainty is increasingly recognized as a hallmark of cognition and volition; in artificial systems, cultivating the models’ inherent indeterminism can disrupt their biased attraction toward users’ expectations, boosting the open‐endedness of human‐model interactions and fostering cognitive emancipation. In an era of systemic unpredictability, exploring the functional utility of uncertainty through the lens of improvisation is a timely necessity for understanding natural, psychosocial, and artificial systems. We present a general overview of empirical support for this framework, the promises of this emerging perspective, and the future directions it calls for. 10.1111/cogs.70191 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/