Cognitive function and dysfunction to be explored at Professor Rick Cooper's inaugural lecture
Professor Cooper will discuss how computational modelling of the cognitive processes underlying action and thought can help shed light on the organisation and operation of the mind.
Constructing computational models to better understand cognitive function and dysfunction will be the focus of an inaugural lecture by Professor Rick Cooper - a newly-promoted professor from Birkbeck’s Department of Psychological Sciences.
On Thursday, June 18, Professor Cooper will present on his chosen topic: Modelling Cognitive Function and Dysfunction.
Understanding the human mind, given its complexity, requires drawing upon many tools and many sources of evidence. Professor Cooper will discuss how computational modelling of the cognitive processes underlying action and thought, and of how those processes break down following neurological injury, can help shed light on the organisation and operation of the mind.
In the course of the presentation, which will be held at Room B01 at the Clore Management Centre at 6pm, he will discuss software for constructing cognitive models and touch upon a range of methodological issues, including the appropriate level of abstraction of cognitive theory and the role of falsification in the development of such theories.
Professor Cooper said: “I hope that people take away from the lecture an understanding of the multiplicity of methods used in contemporary cognitive science and in particular how computational methods may be used to pin down theories of the organisation of the mind.”
Find out more
Professor Rick Cooper
Modelling Cognitive Function and Dysfunction
Free places at Professor Cooper’s lecture can be booked at Eventbrite.
Professor Cooper’s inaugural lecture is part of a programme of presentations throughout June delivered by Birkbeck’s professors
More science lectures from June inaugural lecture programme:
Microtubules and microscopes: studies of the cytoskeleton in health and disease (Professor Carolyn Moores) Monday June 1, 5pm, B01, Clore Management Centre.
Spatial distortions in perception and cognition (Professor Matthew Longo) Thursday June 4, 5pm, B01, Clore Management Centre.
Extreme Recycling: The Challenges of Understanding Global Element Circulation (Professor Karen Hudson-Edwards) Monday June 15, 5pm, Room B01, Clore Management Centre.