Precision Convergence Webinar Series with Dr. Daniel L. Schacter
Adaptive Constructive Processes in Memory, Imagination, and Creativity
Dr. Daniel L. Schacter, Harvard University
With a high-level panel of leaders in science, technology, on-the-ground action, investment, and policy
Adaptive constructive processes play a functional role in cognition but can also produce distortions or errors as a consequence of doing so. According to the constructive episodic simulation hypothesis, simulation of future and other hypothetical experiences depends importantly on episodic retrieval processes that allow individuals to draw on the past in a manner that flexibly extracts and re-combines elements of previous experiences, but these processes may also be responsible for specific kinds of memory errors. This talk will consider both cognitive and neural evidence from studies of episodic remembering, memory distortion, future imagining, and divergent creative thinking that reveal the operation of adaptive constructive processes and provide clues concerning their nature and function.
About the speaker
Daniel L. Schacter is William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. Schacter received his PhD from the University of Toronto in 1981. He remained there until joining the faculty at the University of Arizona in 1987, and Harvard University in 1991. Schacter’s research has explored the relation between explicit and implicit memory, the nature of memory distortions, how individuals use memory to imagine future events, and the effects of aging on memory, resulting in over 400 publications. Schacter has received numerous awards for his re- search, including the Distinguished Scientific Contributions Award from the American Psychological Association, William James Fellow Award from the Association for Psychological Science, and Distinguished Career Contributions Award from the Cognitive Neuroscience Society. He has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and National Academy of Sciences. Schacter has authored several books, including Searching for Memory (1996) and The Seven Sins of Memory (2001), both named as New York Times Notable Books of the Year, and both winners of the American Psychological Association’s William James Book Award. He recently completed an updated, 20th anniversary edition of The Seven Sins of Memory.
About the series
The Precision Convergence series is launched to catalyze unique synergy between, on the one hand, novel partnerships across sciences, sectors and jurisdictions around targeted domains of real-world solutions, and on the other hand, a next generation convergence of AI with advanced research computing and other data and digital architectures such as PSC’s Bridges-2, and supporting data sharing frameworks such as HuBMAP, informing in a real time as possible the design, deployment and monitoring of solutions for adaptive real-world behavior and context.
The Precision Convergence Webinar Series is co-hosted by The McGill Centre for the Convergence of Health and Economics (MCCHE) at McGill University and The Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, a joint computational research center between Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh.
