Memory and Thought

Faculty: Professors Dreyfus, Feldman, Gopnik, Ivry, Lakoff, Ranney, Rosch, Russell, Shimamura and Wilensky.

The Structure of Memory: Professors Feldman, Gopnik, Shimamura and Wilensky are investigating how information can be stored and retrieved from memory. It is now clear that the way information is stored and retrieved in human memory differs in important ways from how it is stored and retrieved in computer memory. ICS members are attempting to understand the nature of these differences and to develop new methods that will enable computers to structure information in memory more like people do, such as massively parallel connectionist networks. ICS scientists seek to expand the frontiers of memory research by studying normal adults, memory deficits in patients with various forms of brain damage, the development of memory in children, and the decline of memory with advanced age.

Thinking and Problem Solving: Professors Dreyfus, Ivry, Lakoff, Ranney, Rosch, Russell, Wilensky, and Zadeh are studying the nature of intelligent thought processes involved in judgment, decision, planning, reasoning, and game playing. Close inspection of these abilities in people and computers suggests that they rely less on formal, logical rule-following than was previously believed. ICS researchers have made compelling cases for alternative approaches, such as "fuzzy logic," prototypes, heuristics and biases, and pattern-matching to similar situations stored in memory.