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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2020 Jul 1.
Published in final edited form as: Trends Cogn Sci. 2019 May 16;23(7):602–614. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2019.04.005

Figure 1. Mapping Affective Science Concepts to Computational Parameters.

Figure 1.

Theories often posit the existence of hypothetical concepts. However, these concepts are frequently abstractly defined, which means they must be operationalized in order for predictions to be tested. In the context of computational models, operationalization can involve mapping a concept onto the computational parameters of the relevant model. This mapping can take at least one of two forms: direct concept-to-parameter mapping or indirect mapping through a mediating mechanism that is not directly represented in the model. Once a concept has been mapped to a parameter, the predictions can be tested, which then informs the theory.