Dear all,

Tomorrow we will have our next LIRa session. Please, find the details below:

Speaker:  Leendert van Maanen (Department of Psychological Methods, UvA)

Date and Time: Thursday, February 21st 2019, 16:30-18:00

Venue: ILLC Seminar Room F1.15, Science Park 107.

Title: Evidence accumulation modeling to understand simple and complex behavior.

Abstract. In this talk, I will highlight the use of accumulator models to study simple and more complex cognitive processing. The central idea of an accumulator model is that in order to perform an action – either to execute observable behavior or in order to trigger another internal cognitive process – cognitive agents need to accumulate evidence over time in support of that action. Formalisms of this idea have been used to understand how experimental manipulations influence both response times and type of choices. After an introduction of the canonical accumulator model, I will discuss recent work that suggests a close relationship between people’s sense of time and evidence accumulation processes in simple choice behavior. I will end by discussing two potential directions that can be taken to apply evidence accumulation to more complex cognitive processes such as reasoning. The first direction involves the idea that certain complex cognitive processes can also be understood as evidence accumulation. The second direction involves EEG to identify critical cognitive processing stages in more complex tasks.

Hope to see you there!

The LIRa team