Logic and human learning

Charles Kemp (Carnegie Mellon University)

Charles Kemp (Carnegie Mellon) will present "Logic and human learning" at 11 in Old Quad G09.

Abstract: Logic used to be viewed as a theory of human reasoning, but few psychologists today endorse this position. I will argue, however, that logic is useful for developing theories of human learning. The working assumptions are that people represent hypotheses in a ``language of thought'', and that hypotheses with short descriptions in this language are especially easy to learn and remember. Given these commitments, formal proposals about the language of thought can be evaluated by testing their predictions about human learning and memory. I will present several such experiments in an attempt to demonstrate the viability of the overall research program.