Predictive Processing: How the Brain Makes Sense of the World, Language, and Culture

September 2025

For this month’s issue, we are centering everything on a neat brainy video about Predictive Processing, the theory about how the brain predicts the world around it. Our writers then expand upon the video and examine the implications for our everyday realities, both inside and outside the classroom. 

“No matter what’s behind us in the rearview mirror, it’s always about what’s next.” – Dabo Swinney

APA Reference for this issue

(author). (2025). (article title, sentence case). MindBrainEd Think Tanks: How the Brain Makes Sense of the World, Language, and Culture, 11(9), (pages).

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Watch before you read...

Back in October 2020, we introduced predictive processing as a concept that can inform language teaching and learning, and we’ve revisited predictive processing in various articles since then. In this issue, our video explains how our brain’s predictions shape our perception of reality. Then, Julia Daley introduces the Think Tank.

In the Think Tank, Mirela C. C. Ramacciotti shares an anecdote that highlights how the brain can deceive us through prediction errors. Next, Glenn Magee discusses how translanguaging reflects the dynamic and flexible nature of the multilingual brain. Then, Joseph Shaules examines how predictive processing sheds light on the complex interplay between language and culture. Finally, Julia Daley concludes by investigating how predictive processing may help us better understand Autism.

Our Thoughts on Predictive Processing

A still from the video.

Our Time Travelling Brains Julia Daley

Until March, I didn’t really understand Predictive Processing (also known as Predictive Coding and the Bayesian Brain), or the theory of the brain as a prediction machine. It wasn’t from a lack of effort—I’d been reading and studying about it for years!—but, for whatever reason, none of the disparate lectures I’d watched and books I’d read on Predictive Processing ever really clicked in a way that made intuitive sense to me. It wasn’t until I watched the video that inspired this issue that everything I’d ever learned about Predictive Processing coalesced into a singular “a-ha” moment and I finally got it.

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Think Tank Articles

A photo of a magician doing card tricks.

The Brain as a Trickster Mirela C. C. Ramacciotti

You’re probably familiar with the saying: “Our minds play tricks on us.” If we take this to mean tricks like the ones a magician’s bound to play, there seems to be more reason today to believe that the mind—and its puppet master, the brain—is indeed a trickster. It can turn reality into illusions and makes us believe that illusions are reality. Let me show you an example. It’s an anecdote about how reality is constructed.

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An illustration of two people speaking in different languages.

Translanguaging as a Neurological Act of Reality Construction Glenn Magee

You might have heard the term translanguaging recently as it is gaining attention in the field of language education. It might sound like a new term, but it has been in use since the 1980s. It was originally used to describe how bilingual students in Wales moved between English and Welsh for different classroom tasks. More recently, the term has transformed into a way of understanding how multilingual speakers use all of their language resources to communicate, think, feel and make sense of who they are…

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A diagram of the Linguaculture Tree.

Predictive Processing and Linguaculture Learning Joseph Shaules

Ayako landed in Los Angeles on her first trip abroad. She passed through immigration and customs, excited to hear English around her. Before heading for the exit, however, she walked into the women’s restroom. She swung open the door but stopped in her tracks. In front of her was a line of toilet stalls, but unlike in Japan the doors did not go all the way to the floor. In fact, she could see someone’s legs inside.

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An illustration of two people putting their brains together like puzzle pieces.

Understanding Autism through Predictive Processing Julia Daley

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a developmental disability that impacts perception, communication, and learning in profound ways. Well-known hallmarks of Autism include struggles with communication, restricted interests, and repetitive behaviors (including stimming), and hyper- (and hypo-) sensitivity to sensory stimuli. When their brains get overwhelmed, autistic people can experience meltdowns (sudden loss of control) and shutdowns (withdrawing inwards); recovery from these episodes can take a few hours in a non-stimulating space.

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Think Tank Plus

Call for Contributions: Ideas and Articles Think Tank Staff

Become a Think Tank star! Here are some of the future issue topics we are thinking about. Would you, or anyone you know, like to write about any of these? Or is there another topic you’d like to recommend? Do you have any suggestions for lead-in, or just plain interesting, videos? How about writing a book review? Or sending us a story about your experiences? Contact us.

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The MindBrained Think Tanks+

is produced by the Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT) Mind, Brain, and Education Special Interest Group (BRAIN SIG). Kyoto, Japan. (ISSN 2434-1002)

Editorial Staff

      Stephen M. Ryan               Curtis H. Kelly              Julia Daley     

 Afon (Mohammad) Khari     Heather Kretschmer     Nicky De Proost

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