Nicholas Shea

Publications

Books

Concepts at the Interface, Oxford University Press, 2024 [open access pdf link] [OUP link]

Representation in Cognitive Science, Oxford University Press, 2018 [open access pdf link] [OUP link]
winner of the Lakatos Award 2020

On Millikan, Wadsworth, 2004

Papers by topic

Papers by year

2026
  1. Shea, N. (2026), ‘Realist Representational Explanations of Agency Should Require Some Unity of Purpose’, Philosophy and the Mind Sciences. [open access pdf] [link]
2025
  1. Miyamoto, K., C. Harbison, S. Tanaka, M. Saito, S. Luo, S. Matsui, P. Sankhe, A. Mahmoodi, M. Lin, N. Trudel, N. Shea, & M. F. S. Rushworth (2025), ‘Asymmetric projection of introspection reveals a behavioral and neural mechanism for interindividual social coordination’, Nature Communications, 16, 295. [open access pdf] [link]
2024
  1. Shea, N. (2024), ‘Metacognition of Inferential Transitions’, Journal of Philosophy. [preprint pdf] [link]
  2. Fleming, S. M. & Shea, N. (2024), ‘Quality Space Computations for Consciousness’, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 28(10), P896-906. [open access pdf] [link]
  3. Fleming, S. M. & Shea, N. (2024), ‘Empirical approaches to quality space computations for consciousness: a response to Dołega et al. and Song’, Trends in Cognitive Sciences. [preprint pdf] [link]
  4. Shea, N. (2022), ‘Can a Theory of Content Rely on Selected Effect Functions? Response to Christie, Brusse, et al.’, Australasian Philosophical Review 6(4), pp. 400-411. (Published Oct 2024) [open access pdf] [link]
  5. Shea, N. (2024), ‘Concepts’, in Michael C. Frank and Asifa Majid (eds.) Open Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science, MIT Press (online). [preprint pdf] [link]
2023
  1. Shea, N. (2023), ‘Moving Beyond Content-Specific Computation in Artificial Neural Networks’, Mind & Language, 38, 156-177. [open access pdf] [link]
  2. Shea, N. (2023), ‘Organized Representations Forming a Computationally Useful Processing Structure’, Synthese. [open access pdf] [link]
  3. Shea, N. (2023), ‘Millikan’s Consistency Testers and the Cultural Evolution of Concepts’, Evolutionary Linguistic Theory. [preprint pdf] [link]
  4. Miyamoto, K., Rushworth, M.F.S. & Shea, N. (2023), ‘Imagining the future self through thought experiments’, Trends in Cognitive Sciences. [open access pdf] [link]
2022
  1. Shea, N. (2022), ‘Concepts as Plug & Play Devices’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 378, 20210353. [open access pdf] [link]
  2. Thorne, S. R., Smortchkova, J., Quilty-Dunn, J., Shea, N. & Hampton, J.A. (2022), ‘Is Concept Appraisal Modulated by Procedural or Declarative Manipulations?’, Frontiers in Psychology 13:774629. [open access pdf] [link]
  3. Shea, N. (2022), ‘Representation in Cognitive Science by Nicholas Shea: Reply by the Author’, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science. 92, 270-273. [pre-print pdf] [link]
2021
  1. Thorne, S. R., Quilty-Dunn, J., Smortchkova, J., Shea, N.*, & Hampton, J. A. (2021), ‘Concept Appraisal’, Cognitive Science, 45, e12978. [open access pdf] [link]
2020
  1. Bayne, T. & Shea, N. (2020), ‘Consciousness, Concepts, and Natural Kinds’, Philosophical Topics 48(1), 65-84. [open access pdf] [jstor link] [doi link]
  2. Heyes, C., Bang, D., Shea, N., Frith, C.D. and Fleming, S.M. (2020) ‘Knowing Ourselves Together: The Cultural Origins of Metacognition’ Trends in Cognitive Sciences 24(5), pp. 349-362 [open access pdf][link]
  3. Smortchkova, J. and Shea, N. (2020) ‘Metacognitive Development and Conceptual Change in Children’ Review of Philosophy and Psychology 11, pp. 745–763 [pre-print pdf] [link]  
  4. Shea, N. (2020) ‘Representation in Cognitive Science – Replies’, Mind & Language, 35(3), 402-412. [pre-print pdf] [link]
  5. Shea, N. (2020) ‘Concept-Metacognition’ Mind & Language 35(5), pp. 565-582 [open access pdf] [link]
  6. Shea, N. (2020)‘Functionalist Interrelations Amongst Human Psychological States Inter Se, ditto for Martians’, Smortchkova, J., Dołęga, K., Schlicht, T. (eds.) in What Are Mental Representations? (Oxford: OUP), pp. 242-253. (Oxford: OUP) [pre-print pdf] [link]
2019
  1. Shea, N. and Frith, C.D. (2019) ‘The Global Workspace Needs Metacognition’ Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 23(7), pp. 560-571. [open access pdf][link]
2018
  1. Shea, N. (2018) ‘Metacognition and Abstract Concepts’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 373: 20170133. [open access pdf] [link]
  2. Shea, N., Godfrey-Smith, P. & Cao, R. (2018), ‘Content in Simple Signalling Systems’, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 69, pp. 1009–1035. [open access pdf] [link]
  3. Travers, E., Frith, C. D. and Shea, N. (2018) ‘Learning Rapidly about the Relevance of Visual Cues Requires Conscious Awareness’, Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 71(8), pp. 1698–1713. [pre-print pdf] [link]
2016
  1. Shea, N. and Frith, C. F. (2016) ‘Dual-Process Theories and Consciousness: The Case for “Type Zero” Cognition’, Neuroscience of Consciousness  [open access pdf] [link]
  2. Shea, N. (2016), ‘Representational development need not be explicable-by-content’, in Vincent C. Muller (ed.) Fundamental Issues of Artificial Intelligence (Springer: Synthese Library), pp. 221-238 [pre-print pdf]
2015
  1. Shea, N. (2015), ‘Distinguishing Top-Down From Bottom-Up Effects’. Perception and Its Modalities. Biggs, S., Matthen, M. & Stokes, D. (eds.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 73-91 [open access pdf] [pre-print pdf] [link]
  2. English, S., Pen, I., Shea, N. & Uller, T. (2015), ‘The Information Value of Non-Genetic Inheritance in Plants and Animals’, PloS One. 10, 1, , e0116996 [open access pdf] [link]
2014
  1. Shea, N., Boldt, A., Bang, D., Yeung, N., Heyes, C. and Frith, C. D. (2014) ‘Supra-personal cognitive control and metacognition’, Trends in Cognitive Sciences 18(4), pp. 186-193 [open access pdf] [link]
  2. Shea, N. (2014), ‘Exploitable isomorphism and structural representation’, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 64(2), pp. 123-144 [pre-print pdf] [link]
  3. Shea, N. (2014), ‘Reward Prediction Error Signals are Meta-Representational’, Nous, 48(2), pp. 314-341 [open access pdf] [link]
  4. Shea, N. (2014), ‘Neural signalling of probabilistic vectors’, Philosophy of Science, 81(5), pp. 902-913 [pre-print pdf] [link]
  5. Shea, N. (2014), ‘Two Modes of Transgenerational Information Transmission’, in B. Calcott et al. (eds.) Cooperation and Its Evolution (MIT Press), pp. 289-312 [pre-print pdf] [link]
  6. Shea, N. (2014), ‘Using Phenomenal Concepts to Explain Away the Intuition of Contingency’, Philosophical Psychology 27(4), pp. 553-570 [pre-print pdf] [link]
  7. Powell, R. & Shea, N. (2014), ‘Homology across inheritance systems’, Biology and Philosophy, 29(6), pp. 781-806 [pre-print pdf] [link]
2013
  1. Shea, N. (2013), ‘Naturalising representational content’, Philosophy Compass, 8(5), pp. 496-509 [open access pdf] [link]
  2. Shea, N. (2013), ‘Inherited Representations are Read in Development’, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 64(1), pp. 1-31 [open access pdf] [link]
  3. Shea, N. (2013), ‘Neural mechanisms of decision-making and the personal level’, in KWM Fulford, M Davies, G Graham, J Sadler, G Stanghellini and T Thornton (eds.) Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Psychiatry (OUP) [pre-print pdf] [link]
  4. Shea, N. (2013), ‘Millikan’s Isomorphism Requirement’, in D. Ryder, J. Kingsbury & K. Williford (eds.) Millikan and Her Critics (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell) [pre-print pdf] [link]
2012
  1. Mars, R.B.*, Shea, N.J.*, Kolling, N. and Rushworth, M.F.S. (2012). ‘Model-based analyses: Promises, pitfalls, and example applications to the study of cognitive control’, Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 65(2), pp. 252-267 (*joint first authors) [open access pdf] [link]
  2. Shea, N. (2012), ‘New thinking, innateness and inherited representation’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 367, pp. 2234-44 [open access pdf] [link]
  3. Shea, N. (2012), ‘Methodological Encounters with the Phenomenal Kind’, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 84(2), pp. 307-344 [open access pdf] [link]
  4. Shea, N. (2012), ‘Genetic representation explains the cluster of innateness-related properties’, Mind & Language, 27(4), pp. 466-493 [open access pdf] [link]
2011
  1. Shea, N., Pen, I., Uller, T. (2011), ‘Three epigenetic information channels and their different roles in evolution’, Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 24, pp. 1178-87 [open access pdf] [link]
  2. Shea, N. (2011), ‘Developmental Systems Theory Formulated as a Claim About Inherited Information’,Philosophy of Science 78, pp. 60-82 [open access pdf] [link]
  3. Shea, N. (2011), ‘What’s Transmitted?  Inherited Information.’ Biology & Philosophy 26(2), pp. 183-189 [pre-print pdf] [link] [target article]
  4. Shea, N. (2011), ‘New concepts can be learned’, review essay on Susan Carey, The Origin of Concepts (OUP, 2009), Biology & Philosophy 26, 129-139 [pre-print pdf] [link]
2010
  1. Shea, N. and Bayne, T. (2010), ‘The Vegetative State and the Science of Consciousness’, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 61, 459-484 [open access pdf] [link]
  2. Shea, N. and Heyes, C. (2010) ‘Metamemory as evidence of animal consciousness: the type that does the trick’, Biology & Philosophy 25, 95-110 [open access pdf] [link]
Earlier
  1. Shea, N., (2009) ‘Imitation as an inheritance system’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 364, 2429-2443 [pre-print pdf] [published pdf]
  2. Shea, N., Krug, K. and Tobler, P.N., (2008) ‘Conceptual representations in goal-directed decision making’, Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience, 8(4), 418-428 [published pdf] [link] [journal doi]
  3. Shea, N. (2007) ‘Consumers Need Information: supplementing teleosemantics with an input condition’, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 75(2), 404-435 [pre-print pdf] [link]
  4. Shea, N. (2007) ‘Content and Its Vehicles in Connectionist Systems’, Mind & Language, 22(3), 246-269 [pre-print pdf] [link]
  5. Shea, N. (2007) ‘Representation in the genome and in other inheritance systems’ Biology and Philosophy, 22, 313-331 [pre-print pdf] [link]
  6. Shea, N. (2006) ‘The Biological Basis of Cultural Transmission’, review of Kim Sterelny, Thought in a Hostile World (Blackwell, 2003), British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 57, 259-266 [pre-print pdf] [link]
  7. Shea, N. (2006) ‘Millikan’s Contribution to Materialist Philosophy of Mind’ (in French translation) Matière Première, Vol. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 127-156 [pre-print pdf]
  8. Shea, N. (2003) ‘Does Externalism Entail the Anomalism of the Mental?’, Philosophical Quarterly, 53, 201–213 [pdf] [link] [Jstor]
  9. Papineau, D. and Shea, N. (2002) ‘Ruth Millikan’s On Clear and Confused Ideas‘, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 65(2), pp. 453-466 [pre-print pdf] [link]
  10. Shea, N. (2002), ‘Getting Clear About Equivocal Concepts: Critical Review of Millikan’s on Clear and Confused Ideas‘, Disputatio 13, pp. 34-47 [unedited draft]

BBS Commentaries and Short Reviews

  1. Shea, N. (2026), ‘Consciousness Facilitates Model-Based Planning, but is that Really Why Consciousness Evolved?’. Commentary on S. M. Fleming & M. Michel, ‘Sensory Horizons and the Functions of Conscious Vision’, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 49, e162, pp. 60-61. [preprint] [link] [target & all commentaries]
  2. Fleming, S. M. & Shea, N. (forthc), ‘Where is the asymmetry between intelligence and consciousness?’. Commentary on A. K. Seth, ‘Conscious artificial intelligence and biological naturalism’, Behavioural and Brain Sciences. [preprint]
  3. Shea, N. (2025), ‘Overview of Concepts at the Interface (2024, OUP), Philosophical Psychology. [preprint] [link]
  4. Shea, N. (2013) ‘Perception vs. Action: the computations may be the same but the direction of fit differs’, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 36(3), pp. 228-9 [preprint]  [link]
  5. Shea, N. (2011), ‘Acquiring a new concept is not explicable-by-content’, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 34(3), pp. 148-149 [preprint] [pdf] [link]
  6. Shea, N. (2009) ‘Varieties of Meaning by R.G. Millikan’, Philosophical Review, 118(1), pp. 127 – 130 [preprint]
  7. Shea, N. (2005), ‘Varieties of Meaning: The 2002 Jean Nicod Lectures by Ruth Millikan’, Quarterly Review of Biology, 80(3), p. 344 [link]
  8. Shea, N. (2003), ‘Functions in Mind by Carolyn Price’, Philosophical Quarterly, 53, pp. 129-132 [link]