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Endnotes: To Bias or Not to be Biased

Back to Topics │Abstract Feelings and Abstract Senses│ Start: Relativity & Reaction
– Nerd Cheat Sheet: To Bias or Not to be Biased

These references underpin the discussion of cognitive bias, emotional regulation, and the engineering parallels that define modern human decision-making.
Together, they form the factual backbone linking neuroscience, psychology, and system logic — showing how the same mechanisms that make us efficient can also lead us astray.

🧠 Brain and Sensory Physiology

Explains the biological basis of neural flexibility, perception, and emotional feedback — the substrate that enables both rational thought and cognitive distortion.

  • Azevedo, F. A. C., et al. (2009). Equal numbers of neuronal and nonneuronal cells make the human brain an isometrically scaled-up primate brain. Journal of Comparative Neurology, 513(5), 532–541.
  • Bear, M. F., Connors, B. W., & Paradiso, M. A. (2020). Neuroscience: Exploring the Brain (5th ed.). Wolters Kluwer.
  • Fuster, J. M. (2015). The Prefrontal Cortex (5th ed.). Academic Press.
  • Herculano-Houzel, S. (2012). The remarkable, yet not extraordinary, human brain as a scaled-up primate brain. PNAS, 109(Suppl. 1), 10661–10668.
  • Kolb, B., & Gibb, R. (2011). Brain plasticity and behaviour in the developing brain. Brain Research, 1389, 140–150.
  • Logothetis, N. K. (2008). What we can do and what we cannot do with fMRI. Nature, 453, 869–878.
  • Miller, E. K., & Cohen, J. D. (2001). An integrative theory of prefrontal cortex function. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 24, 167–202.
  • Striedter, G. F. (2005). Principles of Brain Evolution. Sinauer Associates.

🧩 Behavioural Science and Cognitive Bias

Core works describing how the brain’s shortcuts — heuristics and emotional framing — influence perception, reasoning, and judgment.
These define the interplay between automatic (System 1) and deliberate (System 2) thinking.

  • Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, Fast and Slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
  • Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1974). Judgement under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases. Science, 185(4157), 1124–1131.
  • Thaler, R. H., & Sunstein, C. R. (2008). Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness. Penguin.
  • Kahneman, D., Sibony, O., & Sunstein, C. R. (2021). Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment. HarperCollins.
  • Damasio, A. R. (1994). Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain. Putnam.
  • LeDoux, J. (2012). Rethinking the Emotional Brain. Neuron, 73(4), 653–676.
  • Mercier, H., & Sperber, D. (2017). The Enigma of Reason. Harvard University Press.
  • Walton, D. (1996). Argumentation Schemes for Presumptive Reasoning. Erlbaum.

⚙️ Engineering and Artificial Intelligence Parallels

Technical analogues showing how bias functions as a correction parameter or prior weighting — bridging biological and computational reasoning.

  • Bishop, C. M. (2006). Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning. Springer.
  • Marr, D. (1982). Vision: A Computational Investigation into the Human Representation and Processing of Visual Information. MIT Press.
  • Russell, S., & Norvig, P. (2021). Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach (4th ed.). Pearson.

👁️ Perception, Illusion, and Pattern Recognition

Shared with the Pattern Recognition cheat sheet — these works explain how reliable sensory systems can be misled, and what that reveals about cognition.

  • Gregory, R. L. (1997). Eye and Brain: The Psychology of Seeing (5th ed.). Oxford University Press.
  • Eagleman, D. M. (2001). Visual illusions and neurobiology. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 2, 920–926.
  • Penrose, L. S., & Penrose, R. (1958). Impossible objects: A special type of visual illusion. British Journal of Psychology, 49(1), 31–33.
  • Escher, M. C. (1960). Ascending and Descending [Lithograph].

🗣️ Language, Culture, and Conceptual Framing

Addresses how language, translation, and cultural framing shape the meaning of “bias” and its interpretation in thought and communication.

  • Duden Online. Entry: Bias. Retrieved 2025.
  • Oxford English Dictionary (OED). Entry: Bias. Retrieved 2025.
  • Lakoff, G. (1987). Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things. University of Chicago Press.

🧾 How to Use This Annex

Each section supports a distinct layer of the argument:

  • Brain Physiology explains the hardware;
  • Behavioural Science the operating rules;
  • Engineering the analogies; and
  • Language the perception of meaning.

Together, they establish the factual integrity behind To Bias or Not to Be Biased and its role within the Relativity and Reaction framework.

📖 Series Roadmap

  1. Forward: A Little Background
  2. Introduction: Action, Reaction, and the Human Paradox (16.09.2025)
  3. Looking Back in Time: The Development of the Human Brain (23.09.2025)
  4. Abstract Senses: Enhancing the way we see the world outside (30.09.2025)
  5. Bias as a Concept & Climbing the Stairs: Pattern Recognition & Everyday Tasks (07.10.2025)
  6. Abstract Feelings and Abstract Senses (14.10.2025)
  7. Motivation (04.11.2025)
  8. The Social Knowledge Base (11.11.2025)
  9. Potential (18.11.2025)
  10. The Subliminal Way We Go Through Life (26.11.2025)
  11. Taking Responsibility (02.12.2025)
  12. Fishing for Complements (22.12.2025)
  13. Peter and Fermi (22.12.2025)

🔗 R&R Navigation

Back to Topics │Abstract Feelings and Abstract Senses│ Start: Relativity & Reaction
– Nerd Cheat Sheet: To Bias or Not to be Biased

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