DEPARTMENT of PSYCHOLOGY
2017-2018 COLLOQUIUM SERIES
presents
Elisabeth Karuza
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Department of Psychology
Center for Cognitive Neuroscience
University of Pennsylvania
“Decoding the Ultimate Codebreaker: Statistical Learning at Work in a Complex and Changing Environment”
Learners are highly sensitive to pairwise statistical associations embedded in sensory input (e.g., what is the probability one element will follow another in time?). However, it remains an essential question how we use this information to build up complex knowledge systems (e.g., language), particularly in the face of noise or competing signals. Drawing on insights from functional neuroimaging, I will discuss the interplay between high-level association areas and sensory-specific cortex in a dynamic learning context. I will show that prefrontal cortex, a slow-to-mature area associated with cognitive control, underpins sequential pattern learning in adults, raising the possibility that they recruit a sub-optimal learning system relative to children. Through a series of behavioral experiments, I will then demonstrate that tools from network science offer a novel and largely untapped means of probing how learners scale up pairwise associations to gain knowledge of broad-scale patterns in their environment.
Monday, February 12, 2018
3:30 p.m.
Gilmer 190
Coffee/cookies at 3:15pm.
Reception will be held after the talk.