[koglist] [CEU Cogsci Talks] CogSci CEU Departmental Colloquium: May 28. Wednesday: Thomas Griffiths (UC Berkeley) - Revealing inductive biases by simulating cultural evolution

The CEU Department of Cognitive Science cordially invites you to a talk (as part of its Departmental Colloquium series) by Thomas Griffiths (UC Berkeley) Date: Wednesday, May 28, 2014 - 17:00 - 18:30 Location: Department of Cognitive Science, CEU, Frankel Leó út 30-34., Room G15 Revealing inductive biases by simulating cultural evolution People are remarkably good at acquiring complex knowledge from limited data, as is required in learning causal relationships, categories, or aspects of language. Successfully solving inductive problems of this kind requires having good "inductive biases" - constraints that guide inductive inference. Viewed abstractly, understanding human learning requires identifying these inductive biases and exploring their origins. I will argue that an effective way to solve this problem is to take a step outside the traditional methodology of cognitive psychology, which focuses on individuals learning from the world, and instead look at what happens when people learn from one another. A mathematical analysis using a simple Bayesian model predicts that inductive biases will determine the outcome of processes of cultural transmission in which learners learn from other learners. This provides the foundation for an experimental method in which cultural evolution is simulated in the laboratory as a means of magnifying the effects of human inductive biases. I will present the results of using this method to explore questions about both individual cognition and cultural evolution, and highlight some surprising connections to algorithms more commonly used in computer science and statisticsWe're looking forward to see you there (Frankel Leo u. 30-34) ! Cognitive Science Events at CEU: http://cognitivescience.ceu.hu/events _______________________________________________ Subscribe by sending an empty mail to seminars-subscribe(a)cdc.ceu.hu Unsubscribe by sending an empty mail to seminars-unsubscribe(a)cdc.ceu.hu