Cognition at Stanford

Jay McClelland & Lera Boroditsky

Spring, 2009

language

memory

learning &development

perceptiondecisionmaking

the cognitive faculties

semantic cognition

executivefunctions

language

memory

learning &development

perceptiondecisionmaking

the cognitive faculty

semantic cognition

executivefunctions

some of the questions• How do we get so smart? How does neural tissue think?

• How do we acquire, construct, store and use knowledge?

• How do we make meaning out of sensory data?

• How do we learn language and communicate?

• How does your brain translate the strange series of hisses, tones, puffs, and pops I am producing with my mouth into meaningful thoughts?

• How do language, experience, and culture shape the way we think?

• How do we remember, why do we forget?

• What does it mean to imagine?

• How do we reason and make decisions?

• How does sophisticated behavior emerge out of simple building blocks?

the methods

• testing adults – individually & in interactions

– in the lab and out in the world

– measuring all aspects & products of human behavior

the methods

• testing adults – individually & in interactions

– in the lab and out in the world

• testing children

the methods

• testing adults – individually & in interactions

– in the lab and out in the world

• testing children

• fMRI, EEG, MEG, TMS

the methods

• testing adults – individually & in interactions

– in the lab and out in the world

• testing children

• fMRI, EEG, MEG, TMS

• patient populations

• J

• L

Semantic dementiapatient’s drawing of a swan

the methods

• testing adults – individually & in interactions

– in the lab and out in the world

• testing children

• fMRI, EEG, MEG, TMS

• patient populations

• computational modeling

ContextRelation Cue

Response

Neo-Cortex

Hippocampus

the methods

• testing adults – individually & in interactions

– in the lab and out in the world

• testing children

• fMRI, EEG, MEG, TMS

• patient populations

• computational modeling

• cross-cultural comparisons

the methods

• testing adults – individually & in interactions

– in the lab and out in the world

• testing children

• fMRI, EEG, MEG, TMS

• patient populations

• computational/mathematical modeling

• cross-cultural comparisons

• linguistic analyses

Lera Boroditsky

How can we mentally represent things we could never see or touch?

How do the languages we speak shape the ways we think?

What does it mean to imagine?

wife: I’m leaving.husband: Who is he?

Herb Clark

Cognitive and social processes in language use and discourse.

What speakers mean in saying

what they say.

Pretense, deception, irony…

Special interest in conversation.

Jay McClelland*

• computational modeling• cognitive development• context effects• critical periods• concepts• continuity in processing,

representation and learning• causal reasoning• comprehension• convergent contributions

of collaborating brain areas

How does complex behavior emerge from simple processing and learning mechanisms?

*according to l.b.

Ewart Thomas

Statistical methods.

Mathematical and experimental analyses of information processing, equity, and small-group processes.

Life after StanfordSteven Kosslyn HarvardDavid Rumelhart StanfordLarry Barsalou EmoryBob Sternberg YaleKeith Holyoak UCLABeth Loftus UC IrvineRichard Shiffrin IndianaJohn Anderson CMUSteve Sloman BrownBrian Ross IllinoisMark Gluck RutgersLarry Maloney NYUGreg Murphy NYULynn Cooper Columbia

Life after Stanford

Danny Oppenheimer Princeton

Tom Griffiths Brown, Berkeley

Lera Boroditsky MIT, Stanford

Alex Huk UT Austin

Noam Sobel Berkeley

Silvia Bunge UC Davis, Berkeley

Beth Marsh Duke

Jeff Zacks Wash U

Jonathan Demb Michigan

Anthony Wagner MIT, Stanford

Sharon Thompson-Schill UPenn