The Perception & Action Seminar Series explores a wide range of research in the domain of human perception and controlling action.

Speaker: Arthur Glenberg, Arizona State University

Title: Language comprehension requires embodied processing

Abstract: In the first part of this talk, I discuss whether Large Language Models, such as ChatGPT, understand language the way humans do. The results of empirical work show that, if they understand at all, it is not the same understanding as humans. I suggest that this lack of human-like understanding arises because the models do not have a body that interacts with the world. In the second part of the talk, I expand on these ideas to demonstrate how most psychological models of language/semantics are embarrassingly inadequate to account for human language understanding.

The Developmental Brown Bag (DBB) is a speaker series dedicated to investigating developmental origins, trajectories and mechanisms. Speakers consider development from a cognitive, social, and cultural perspective.

Speaker: Ashley Thomas, Harvard University

Title: Intuitive Theory of Social Relationships

Abstract:

Every day, we recognize social relationships and use knowledge about social relationships to inform our behavior. For example, we recognize that it is acceptable to eat off our spouse’s plate, but unacceptable to eat off our employer’s plate. We may laugh at our boss’s joke to maintain our deferential relationship or do a favor for a coworker to maintain a cooperative one. Previous research on social cognitive development has largely focused on infants’ and children’s social reasoning either at the microscale of an individual person’s actions, thoughts, and beliefs (e.g., ‘theory of mind’), or at the macroscale, of societal groups and social categories (e.g., ingroups and outgroups, gender, or race). My research program is situated between these scales, focusing on how humans think about relationships between individuals which we depend on for our survival and wellbeing. In this talk I will consider findings from developmental psychology and propose that throughout our lives, our representations of social relationships are intuitive theories. I propose three central components of this intuitive theory: evaluating whether a relationship exists; categorizing it into a model (i.e., type, schema, concept) and computing its strength (i.e., intensity, pull, or thickness). Following Relational Models Theory (Fiske, 1991, 2004), I propose that from infancy, humans recognize relationships that belong to three models: communal sharing (where people see themselves as one), authority ranking (where people see themselves as ranked), and equality matching (where people see themselves as separate and track reciprocity). A single relationship can be organized according to any of these models depending on the context, but relationships tend to use a dominant model. The other component is a relationship’s strength and can be thought of as a continuous representation of obligations (the extent to which certain actions are expected and morally evaluated), and commitment (the likelihood that people will continue the relationship). In communal sharing relationships this may be felt as attachment, in authority ranking relationships it may be felt as allegiance or loyalty, and in equality matching relationships it may be felt as trust. One hypothesis regarding strength is that the stronger a connection, the less interchangeable the person or people. These representations, and the assumption that others share them, allow us to form, maintain and change social relationships by informing how we interpret and evaluate the actions of others and plan our own.

The Developmental Brown Bag (DBB) is a speaker series dedicated to investigating developmental origins, trajectories and mechanisms. Speakers consider development from a cognitive, social, and cultural perspective.

Speaker: Iris Berent, Northeastern University

Title: Can We Get Human Nature Right?

Abstract: Few questions in science are as controversial as human nature. At stake is whether our basic concepts and emotions are all learned from experience, or whether some are innate. Here, I demonstrate that reasoning about innateness is biased by the basic workings of the human mind.
Psychological science suggests that newborns possess core concepts of “object” and “number”. Laypeople, however, believe that newborns are devoid of such notions, but that they can innately recognize emotions. Moreover, people presume that concepts are learned, whereas emotions (along with sensations and actions) are innate.
I trace these beliefs to two tacit psychological principles: intuitive Dualism and Essentialism. Essentialism guides tacit reasoning about biological inheritance and suggests that innate traits reside in the body; per intuitive Dualism, however, the mind seems ethereal, distinct from the body. It thus follows that, in our intuitive psychology, concepts (which people falsely consider as disembodied) must be learned, whereas emotions, sensations and emotions (which are considered embodied) are likely innate; these predictions are in line with the experimental results.
In this talk, I demonstrate how these intuitive biases taint our understanding of human nature, derail science, and quite possibly, give rise to the “hard problem” of consciousness.

The Developmental Brown Bag (DBB) is a speaker series dedicated to investigating developmental origins, trajectories and mechanisms. Speakers consider development from a cognitive, social, and cultural perspective.

Speaker: Liran Samuni, Harvard University

Title: Cooperation and competition in chimpanzees and bonobos

Abstract: More than any other species, humans exhibit an extraordinary capacity for cooperation that transcends social boundaries, spanning from close relationships with family and friends to extensive networks that include distant acquaintances and even strangers. Cooperation and our tendency for mutual reliance are thought to support our prolonged life-histories to allow humans to expand across the globe. However, the same capacity for cooperation can also fuel intergroup conflict and violence, resulting in discriminatory and prejudicial behavior. Studying the evolutionary roots of the interplay between cooperation and competition is key to understand the social dynamics of current human societies.
In this talk I will present some of my research on the mechanisms underlying violence and cooperation among our closest living relatives, chimpanzees and bonobos, as a window into our evolutionary past. These two species share similar life-histories and social environments but exhibit significant differences in patterns of dominance, social relationships, and out-group attitudes. By leveraging and evaluating the similarities and differences between them, I will present some work on the role of social relationships and mutual reliance in informing cooperation and competition in the two species.

The Developmental Brown Bag (DBB) is a speaker series dedicated to investigating developmental origins, trajectories and mechanisms. Speakers consider development from a cognitive, social, and cultural perspective.

Speaker: Michelle Leichtman, University of New Hampshire 

Title: Memory for Educational Episodes: A Developmental Perspective 

Abstract: Memory in educational contexts typically connotes semantic processes required to learn facts and concepts. But episodic memories of one-point-in-time events may also play a deceptively important role in academic performance. In this talk, I explore the nature of specific memories of learning events, how they are scaffolded across early development, and the characteristics that may play a role in their persistence over time.