Coffee Chat with Prof. Jay McClelland (Psychology)

Professor Jay McClelland joined SymSys Society for a coffee chat! We discussed the capacity for computational and mathematical models to account for consciousness, mused upon emergent questions in cognition at the intersection of psychology, philosophy, and mathematics, and heard about Professor McClelland’s thoughts on the debates between researchers about computational modeling of cognition.

For me, a highlight of the chat was our discussion on how the study of neural networks has evolved over time. Fun fact: Professor McClelland first got interested in neural networks way back in the 70s (!!), and he’s been excited to see research of neural networks pick up again in recent years following a period of unpopularity. He’s been consistently interested in neural networks for decades, so it’s been a gratifying I-told-you-so experience for him!

We also discussed some of his latest research in Bayesian reasoning and how to build models that can account for the complex cognitive processes that humans engage in when making decisions.

Big thanks to all who joined us!