Department of
Psychological and Brain Sciences

• Cognitive Science
• Cognitive Psychology

• Concept Learning
• Perceptual Learning
• Knowledge Representation
• Computational Modelling of Mental Processes
• Neural Networks
• Visual Cognition and Pattern Recognition
• Decision Making and Judgment

Typically, complex adaptive system models are applied to natural phenomena, such as the pattern of stripes on zebras or seeds on sunflowers. Our research goal is to apply these models to understanding on individual people learn and perceive, and how groups of people organize themselves into emergent structures which none of the individuals in the group may understand or even perceive. Our laboratory is currently exploring interactions between perceptual and conceptual learning, methods for learning abstract concepts using computer simulations, the perception of similarity and analogy, and group behavior from a complex systems perspective. Our typical modus operandi is to simultaneously conduct psychological experiments on humans and develop computational models of the observed behavior. The results from the experiments help to constrain and inform our computational models, and the computational models serve to organize and explain our empirical results.

In press - Goldstone, R. L., Jones, A., & Roberts, M.. Group path formation. IEEE Transactions on System, Man, and Cybernetics, Part A.

in press - Hockema, S. A., Blair, M. R., & Goldstone, R. L.. Differentiation for novel dimensions. Proceedings of the Twenty-seventh Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

in press - Landy, D., & Goldstone, R. L.. Relational reasoning is in the eyes of the beholder: How global perceptual groups aid and impair algebraic evaluations. Proceedings of the Twent-seventh Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

in press - Mason, W. A., Jones, A., & Goldstone, R. L.. Propagation of innovations in networked groups. Proceedings of the Twenty-seventh Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

in press - Roberts, M. E., & Goldstone, R. L.. Explaining resource undermatching with agent-based models. Proceedings of the Twenty-seventh Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

in press - Son, J. Y., & Goldstone, R. L.. Relational words as handles: They bring along baggage. Proceedings of the Twenty-seventh Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

in press - Goldstone, R. L., & Janssen, M. A.. Computational models of collective behavior. Trends in Cognitive Science.

2005 - Feng, Y., Goldstone, R. L., & Menkov, V.. A Graph Matching Algorithm and its Application to Conceptual System Translation. International Journal on Artificial Intelligence Tools, 14, 77-100.

2005 - Goldstone, R. L., Feng, Y., & Rogosky, B.. Connecting to the world and each other. In D. Pecher & R. Zwaan (Eds.) Grounding cognition: The role of perception and action in memory, language, and thinking. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (pp. 292-314)

2005 - Rogosky, B. J., & Goldstone, R. L.. Adaptation of perceptual and semantic features. In L. A. Carlson & E. van der Zee (Eds.), Functional features in language and space: Insights from perception, categorization and development. (pp. 257-273). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

2005 - Goldstone, R. L., & Son, J. Y.. The transfer of scientific principles using concrete and idealized simulations. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 14, 69-110.

2005 - Goldstone, R. L., Ashpole, B. C., & Roberts, M. E.. Knowledge of resources and competitors in human foraging.? Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 12, 81-87.

2004 - Börner, K, Maru, J. T., & Goldstone, R. L.. The simultaneous evolution of article and author networks in PNAS.? The Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 101, 5266-527.

2004 - Goldstone, R. L., & Ashpole, B. C.. Human foraging behavior in a virtual environment. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 11, 508-514.

2003 - Goldstone, R. L.. Learning to perceive while perceiving to learn.? in R. Kimchi, M. Behrmann, and C. Olson (Eds.) Perceptual Organization in Vision: Behavioral and Neural Perspectives. Mahwah, New Jersey. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. (pp. 233-278)

2003 - Goldstone, R. L., & Sakamoto, Y.. The Transfer of Abstract Principles Governing Complex Adaptive Systems. Cognitive Psychology, 46, 414-466.

2003 - Goldstone, R. L., & Kersten, A.. Concepts and Categories. In A. F. Healy & R. W. Proctor (Eds.) Comprehensive handbook of psychology, Volume 4: Experimental psychology. (pp. 591-621). New York: Wiley.

2002 - Goldstone, R. L., & Rogosky, B. J.. Using relations within conceptual systems to translate across conceptual systems, Cognition, 84, 295-320.

2001 - Goldstone, R. L, & Steyvers, M.. The Sensitization and Differentiation of Dimensions During Category Learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 130,116-139.

2000 - Goldstone, R. L.. Unitization during Category Learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 26, 86-112.

1998 - Goldstone, R. L.. Perceptual Learning. Annual Review of Psychology, 49, 585-612.

1998 - Goldstone, R. L., & Barsalou, L.. Reuniting perception and conception. Cognition, 65, 231-262.

1998 - Schyns, P. G., Goldstone, R. L., & Thibaut, J-P.. Development of features in object concepts. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 21, 1-54.

1996 - Goldstone, R. L.. Isolated and Interrelated Concepts. Memory & Cognition, 24, 608-628

1995 - Goldstone, R. L.. Effects of categorization on color perception. Psychological Science, 6, 298-30

1994 - Goldstone, R. L.. Influences of categorization on perceptual discrimination. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 123, 178-200.

1994 - Goldstone, R. L.. The role of similarity in categorization: Providing a groundwork. Cognition, 52,125-157.

1994 - Goldstone, R. L.. Similarity, Interactive Activation, and Mapping. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 20, 3- 28.

1993 - Medin, D.L., Goldstone, R.L., & Gentner, D.. Respects for similarity. Psychological Review, 100, 254-278.

1991 - Goldstone, R. L., Medin, D. L., & Gentner, D.. Relational similarity and the nonindependence of features in similarity judgments. Cognitive Psychology, 23, 222-264.

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• Dr. Goldstone's Laboratory Website