What Makes Us Smart: The Computational Logic of Human Cognition

Gershman, Samuel J.

ISBN 10: 069120571X / ISBN 13: 9780691205717

Editore: Princeton University Press, 2021

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Riassunto:

How a computational framework can account for the successes and failures of human cognition

At the heart of human intelligence rests a fundamental puzzle: How are we incredibly smart and stupid at the same time? No existing machine can match the power and flexibility of human perception, language, and reasoning. Yet, we routinely commit errors that reveal the failures of our thought processes. What Makes Us Smart makes sense of this paradox by arguing that our cognitive errors are not haphazard. Rather, they are the inevitable consequences of a brain optimized for efficient inference and decision making within the constraints of time, energy, and memory—in other words, data and resource limitations. Framing human intelligence in terms of these constraints, Samuel Gershman shows how a deeper computational logic underpins the “stupid” errors of human cognition.

Embarking on a journey across psychology, neuroscience, computer science, linguistics, and economics, Gershman presents unifying principles that govern human intelligence. First, inductive bias: any system that makes inferences based on limited data must constrain its hypotheses in some way before observing data. Second, approximation bias: any system that makes inferences and decisions with limited resources must make approximations. Applying these principles to a range of computational errors made by humans, Gershman demonstrates that intelligent systems designed to meet these constraints yield characteristically human errors.

Examining how humans make intelligent and maladaptive decisions, What Makes Us Smart delves into the successes and failures of cognition.

Informazioni sull'autore: Samuel Gershman is professor of psychology at Harvard University and the director of the Computational Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory. Twitter @gershbrain

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Titolo: What Makes Us Smart: The Computational Logic...
Casa editrice: Princeton University Press
Data di pubblicazione: 2021
Legatura: paperback
Condizione: Very Good