Guest, Olivia ; Martin, Andrea E. & van Rooij, Iris: On Models, Prediction, and Scientific Roles Thereof: Commentary on Sanbonmatsu et al. (2025)

We commend Sanbonmatsu et al. (2025) for centring metatheory and metamethod as remedies to “difficult research problems”. However, we wish to depart from their conceptualisation of what models are and what role they play in psychological theorising. Under computationalism, models are not a container for observations through being fit to neurobehavioural data and should not be held to the standard of providing us with numerical predictions. Computational cognitive models can only play their role