Cognitive Science Colloquium (CogSci Brown Bag)

Friday, November 13, 2009
12 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.

Randall Beer, a professor at Indiana University-Bloomington, presents "Evolution and Analysis of Minimally Cognitive Behavior in Model Agents."

Speaker's abstract:

Interest in a situated, embodied and dynamical perspective on behavior and cognition is steadily growing. However, the conceptual foundations of this approach, as well as the theoretical tools necessary to understand the resulting brain-body-environment systems, are in their infancy. For this reason, we have been exploring the evolution and analysis of model agents exhibiting minimally cognitive behavior. This talk will describe the evolution of visually-guided behavior, including orientation, catching, perception of passability, object categorization, relational categorization, short-term memory and selective attention, and the evolution of relational communication. Our model is loosely based on the waggle dance of honey bees, through which a returning forager bee communicates the direction and distance to a resource to its hive mates.

Audience: UA Community, Small (1-50)

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