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Experimental Psychology Seminar - John P. Spencer
04 March 2025, 1:00 pm–3:00 pm
What would an embodied neural account of cognition look like? The view from dynamic field theory
Event Information
Open to
- All
Availability
- Yes
Organiser
-
Antonietta Esposito
Location
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30526 Bedford WayLondonWC1H0AP
Abstract: In this talk, I will discuss our efforts to ground higher-level cognition in sensory and motor systems using the framework of dynamic field theory (DFT). DFT models the brain at the level of population activity using neural fields that are coupled together to create large-scale neural architectures. Here I will demonstrate that DFT is fully embodied in the sense that a large-scale autonomous neural architecture instantiated on a robot can achieve many aspects of higher cognition including attentional search and selection, working memory, and word learning. Further, DFT does this in a way that is consistent with neural systems while also being ‘explainable’, an important step in the context of recent efforts pursuing ‘explainable AI’.
Host: Gal Rozic
Zoom Link: https://ucl.zoom.us/j/99735343381
Meeting ID: 997 3534 3381
About the Speaker
John P. Spencer
Professor of Psychology at University of East Anglia
John P. Spencer is a Professor of Psychology at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK. Prior to arriving in the UK, he was a Professor of Psychology at the University of Iowa and served as the founding Director of the Delta Center (Development and Learning from Theory to Application). He received a Sc.B. with Honors from Brown University in 1991 and a Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from Indiana University in 1998.
Prof. Spencer is the recipient of the 2003 Early Research Contributions Award from the Society for Research in Child Development, the 2006 Robert L. Fantz Memorial Award from the American Psychological Foundation, and a 2024 Distinguished Alumni Award from Indiana University. His research examines the development of visuo-spatial cognition, word learning, working memory, attention, and executive function with an emphasis on dynamical systems accounts of cognition and action. Prof. Spencer’s work has been funded by the US National Institutes of Health, the US National Science Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as the Leverhulme Trust.
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