What Can AI Teach Us About the Human Mind...and vice versa?

Scientists often use models to study complicated and interesting phenomena (think the model of the atom, mouse models to study cancer, etc.). In particular, computational models allow us to improve our understanding of phenomena that cannot be observed directly, whether due to time (such as predicting earthquakes) or access constraints (such as understanding the functions of the human mind). Depending on what they are modeling and why, computational models may use statistics, simulation, and/or artificial intelligence (AI). In this talk, Prof. Irina Rabkina (TLHS ’10) will discuss the use of AI models in Cognitive Science, what they can teach us about the human mind, and how that new understanding can, in turn, be used to improve AI as a tool.

Speaker: Irina Rabkina, Occidental College