Dartmouth Events

Psychological and Brain Sciences Colloquium

Russell Epstein, PhD, University of Pennsylvania

Friday, November 13, 2020
3:30pm – 4:30pm
Virtual
Intended Audience(s): Alumni, Faculty, Postdoc, Staff, Students-Graduate, Students-Undergraduate
Categories: Lectures & Seminars

Please join us on Friday, November 13, 2020, at 3:30 p.m., for a virtual colloquium given by Russell Epstein, Professor of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania.

Title:  Cognitive Maps in the Human Mind/Brain

Abstract:  To navigate efficiently from place to place, we rely on internal representations of the spatial structure of the world. These are sometimes referred to as “'cognitive maps”' because they play a functional role that is similar to physical maps. The study of cognitive maps has been a central concern of psychology and neuroscience, stretching back to the dawn of the cognitive revolution. The importance of these representational structures is emphasized by the fact that they are believed to be used not just only for spatial navigation, but also for reasoning, inference, and memory in a wide variety of knowledge domains. In this talk, I will address several outstanding questions about cognitive maps and their neural instantiation. First, to what extent are the cognitive maps found in humans similar to those found in rodents? Second, how do cognitive maps manifest in real environments, which are often complex and divided into subspaces? Third, how are landmarks and scene geometry used to anchor cognitive maps to the environment? By answering these questions in the spatial domain, we hope to shed light on the role that cognitive maps play in mediating human thought more broadly.

Zoom details will be forthcoming.
 

For more information, contact:
Michelle Powers
603-646-3181

Events are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.