Event

Mini-Science public talk: Memory, models and philosophy of the brain

Wednesday, April 6, 2022 19:00to20:00
Ian Gold et Brendan Johns

Ian Gold (Dept. of Philosophy, Dept. of Psychiatry) and Brendan Johns (Dept. of Psychology)

Asst. Prof. Johns will talk about the lessons from big data approaches to cognition. The cognitive sciences have begun to collect, collate, and use large natural language corpora to understand human behaviour. That effort is facilitated by impressive new machine learning techniques and technologies. Prof. John's will present the tradition and practice of big data within the history of cognitive science and consider the potential costs associated with an over-enthusiastic and unreflective embrace of the new way. He will articulate the distinction between big data and classic approaches within cognitive science research and present the power and promise of big data approaches to understanding the mind using computational models of language processing.

Prof. Gold will talk about philosophy and the brain. In this talk, Prof. Gold will do two things: first, he will discuss the kinds of questions philosophers are asking about neuroscience; secondly, he will offer an illustration of the ways in which neuroscience can contribute to philosophy and philosophy to neuroscience.

Watch the recording of this presentation


Mini-Science 2022: The Brain – Frontiers in Neuroscience

Exciting presentations by some of McGill's leading neuroscientists about the brain, the mind and the neuroscience of living as we now understand it. Find out how the brain and memory changes as we age, or how the bilingual brain functions, and how remarkably emotional our brains are.

All talks are in English.

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